Varied Bunting in August

August feels like summer but the year has turned. Southbound migration is quietly underway, many adults are molting into fresh plumage, and family groups are breaking up. Late nesters are still feeding young in the North while southern birds are already drifting toward wintering grounds.

For the Varied Bunting specifically, August is a summer month inside the nesting season — one of the most active and demanding periods of this bird's year. Across the 3 states and provinces where varied buntings occur, what the bird is doing this month depends heavily on latitude — the details below break it down by band.

Southern states

absent

Mid-latitudes

summer breeder

Northern states & Canada

absent

In August, varied buntings are absent in the South, summer breeder across the mid-latitudes, and absent in the northern states and Canada. That north–south split is the defining feature of this month: where you live changes which version of this bird you're looking at.

August is inside the Varied Bunting nesting season — about a month earlier in the South and a month later in the North. Nest: cup low in a thorny shrub in a desert canyon. Clutch 2–5 eggs, incubation 12–14 days, 1–2 per season.

The southern nesting season has already wound down, but northern pairs are still raising young — the whole season shifts later as you go north. During the nesting months, adults switch to protein-rich foods for their young, become more secretive around the nest site, and often visit feeders in quick, purposeful trips rather than lingering.

• Grass seeds, caterpillars and beetles

A Mexican border specialty of thorny canyon scrub; a birdbath is the best way to see one.

Molting birds look scruffy and often skulk — don't be surprised if familiar visitors briefly vanish. Keep water fresh in the heat.

Full Varied Bunting diet guide → · Best feeder for varied buntings →

In August, the best watching is around food rather than the nest — adults make repeated foraging trips and are most visible at dawn and dusk. Give nesting birds space: if a bird is carrying food or scolding you persistently, you're close to a nest and should back off.

The state guides below show exactly where in your region varied buntings are expected this month and which native plants hold them in a yard.

ArizonaNew MexicoTexas