The Painted Bunting is perhaps the most colorful of North American songbirds.  They range from Florida across the southern states to Texas, where this one was photographed at Ranch for the Birds.
   Ornithologist Alexander Sprunt said it best:  ".. for flaming jewel-like radiance, the nonpariel, as we know it in the South, literally fulfills the name; it is 'without an equal'." [A. C. Bent, Life Histories of North American Birds]