Prepared by David L. Suddjian
Santa Cruz Bird Club Bird Records Keeper
November 14, 1999
 

The Indigo Bunting has been recorded 22 times in Santa Cruz County since the
first record on September 28, 1960. It has been recorded in 11 of the recent
20 years, with a recent 10-year average of 1.0 birds/year.

Five records (23%) were considered to be spring migrants, distributed evenly
from April 27 - June 23. These were all singing adult males. The recent
10-year average for spring records was only 0.2 birds/spring.

Seventeen records (77%) were considered to be fall migrants, from July 18 -
December 20.  50% of the fall records were first detected from August 18 -
September 30, with a peak in mid to late September. Only three Indigos have
been found in the county after October 2. These were all notably late fall
records for Northern California: December 4-11, 1976 at Younger Lagoon;
December 19-20, 1998 at U.C. Santa Cruz Arboretum; and, November 14, 1999 at
Harkins Slough. Of the fall records, seven were adult males and 10 (including
all three late fall records) were females or immature males. The recent
10-year average for fall records was 0.8 birds/fall. For contrast, fall
records of Lazuli Bunting (a sparsely detected migrant, also peaking in
September) averaged 4.6 birds/fall for the years 1994-1998. (Note that Lazuli
Bunting may be somewhat under-reported to the county record keeping system.)

All but three records of Indigo Bunting were of birds within three miles of
the coast. Most were found in willow riparian vegetation or in grassy and
weedy habitat close to riparian vegetation.  All reports have been of single
birds, except for up to three together at Harkins Slough on September 21-25,
1994. Half of the records have been of birds seen only one day, but half have
involved stays of at least 2-8 days.

The very late Indigo Bunting found at Younger Lagoon on December 4-11, 1976,
had the most interesting company of all the county records. Noteworthy by
itself (late and the 3rd county record), it was soon joined at that site by a
Dickcissel (1st county record) and American Tree Sparrow (4th county record)
on December 7, and a Rusty Blackbird (1st county record) on December 11.  Ah,
the good old days of Santa Cruz birding!