We have several bird books but the best we have are specially made for Oklahoma. The bird we can't ID may be an uncommom visitor but I think I saw an example nesting in the grass on or near the ground. I did NOT investigate as I didn't want to disturb them.

I have seen the bird in question on the ground beneath both of our back yard feeding stations (two feeders per station.) It doesn't seem to be interested in the seed feeders but does eat seed from the ground.

The bird is smaller than an eastern bluebird and larger than an American goldfinch, maybe slightly smaller than a tufted titmouse. It is beautiful blue on its back and bright orangey red on the belly. In flight in the sun the blue back is iridescent and amazingly BLUE. The red-orange breast is far more colorful than a robin or an eastern bluebird but its breast/belly is not the red of a redheaded woodpecker as it has a tinge of orange in the red.

Sorry, no pix. I almost got pix of the painted buntings but my wifes bino-cam has separate focus on the cam part and I didn't so only got colored blurs. (*%&$ 7654*&$(*%

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]