Description of Painting:

Painted Bunting, Passerina ciris  by John James Audubon

The Nonpareil, as this bird is sometimes called, is one of the most brilliantly colored birds of America. In this composition painted in April 1821, five birds are perched on a sprig of a chickasaw plum sketched in by Joseph Mason. The female at the top carries nesting material, and the two mature and two immature males are engaged in a territorial squabble. While the males wear a crazy quilt of colors, the females are merely inconspicuous little green finches. In Mexico, the painted bunting is quite a favorite cage bird; thus, Americans along the border are apt to speak of it as the Mexican canary.