Painted Bunting. All photographs by the author.

I write the bird column for the Sheffield Times that focuses on the birds of Sheffield, so I get inquiries and questions from local Sheffield residents regarding birds they have observed. A Sheffield couple who are avid gardeners and thoroughly enjoy feeding the birds called me on December 2, 2021, regarding a male Painted Bunting they believed was frequenting their birdfeeders. They live less than two miles from the center of Sheffield. I rushed right over because they live only five miles from me.