‘He’s back!’ Painted bunting bachelor returns to Raleigh park — and birders are thrilled

Martha Quillin
·2 min read
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A rare-for-North Carolina bird first spotted last year at Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh apparently is making an encore appearance.

The colorful male painted bunting was spotted and photographed last week by shooter Bob Karp, who shared the image on Twitter, saying, “HE’S BACK! @DixPark’s rock star Painted Bunting has returned! The gorgeous bird rarely seen in central North Carolina, made a rare appearance in the @raleighparks last summer drawing hundreds of birders from around the state to try and capture photos of the stunner.”

The portrait Karp shared shows the bird’s fluffy ruby underside amid leafy branches against a clear blue sky. Male painted buntings have blue heads, with yellow and green on their wings.

Karp said he can’t be sure but he thinks it’s the same bird. He said he located it by using the Merlin birdsong app on his phone like a Geiger counter, pointing it at the tree tops until it zeroed in on the right tune.

“He’s in the exact same spot, in the exact same tree,” Karp said Monday. “I have to think it’s the same guy.”

A rare Painted Bunting photographed in Raleigh, NC’s Dorothea Dix Park in 2022.
A rare Painted Bunting photographed in Raleigh, NC’s Dorothea Dix Park in 2022.

Karp said the bird appears to be traveling alone on its visit to Raleigh.

“He sits there on his tree and just sings his heart out,” Karp said. “I don’t know if he’s looking for a mate, or if he’s looking for food or what. It seems kind of sad. Usually when you see birds flying around, there’s a couple or three or four. He’s just there by himself.

“But maybe that’s the way he likes it.”

Birding is a popular pastime in North Carolina, and a hard-to-find species or one that turns up in unexpected territory, especially if it happens to sport a Crayon box of colors, can prompt birders to drop what they’re doing to try to see it.

After someone shared a sighting of a painted bunting at Dix Park last July, the hunt was on, and binocular- and camera-toting tourists flocked to the park to catch a glimpse.

A single Painted Bunting returned to Dorothea Dix Park after making a rare appearance in the Raleigh, NC park last summer, drawing hundreds of birders from around the state to try and capture images of the beautiful bird. Painted Bunting, sometimes called the ‘Nonpareil,’ meaning ‘unrivaled,’ describes the unbelievable colors of a species rarely seen in North Carolina,

Painted buntings are in the family with cardinals and grosbeaks. Audubon’s Guide to North American Birds says they often breed in the southeastern corner of North Carolina but aren’t otherwise seen much in the state. Audubon says the painted bunting’s numbers have declined in recent decades, as have those of many other species.

The best opportunity to see the bird is said to be from the park’s sunflower field off Hunt Drive. The sunflower seeds are planted mid-May, so those aren’t blooming yet, leaving the painted bunting to provide the color.