any of various brightly coloured finches or similar small songbirds, esp. (a) Emblema pictum (family Estrildidae) of central Australia; (b) the…

Chiefly U.S. The painted bunting, Passerina ciris, a brightly coloured songbird of the southern U.S.

(a) a small, brightly coloured bunting, Passerina ciris, of the southern United States (also called nonpareil); (b) = painted longspur n. (now rare).

A name for a North American bird, the Nonpareil or Painted Bunting (Cyanospiza or Passerina ciris), so called from its gorgeous colouring, blue…