The Indigo Bunting in Colorado
The Indigo Bunting in Colorado.
Larimer is the most northern county in Colorado. Situated as it is, the western part is of rugged mountains, the southern and a portion of the eastern is covered with fertile farms while the northern and northeastern is of barren plains, all of which offer to the bird student each year new surprises. This spring we had with us for several days a flock of eight or ten Indigo Buntings (Passerina cyanea). Prof. Cooke in his list of Colorado birds says, “Rare if not accidental. Taken twice in Colorado, once in El Paso County, while the other specimen is in the Maxwell collection.” The Maxwell collection is without labels but is supposed to have been taken about twenty years ago in the vicinity of Boulder, Boulder Co. This county joins Larimer on the South. The Indigo Bunting occurs regularly in eastern Kansas, and I think that in a short time they will come regularly to Colorado. One has but to note the changes in this section within the past twenty-five years, the barren plain with only a few trees along the streams has changed to cultivated farms with shade trees and young orchards. In a few years more we will probably be able to add many eastern species to our already large list of birds.
W. L. BURNETT
Ft. Collins, Col.
