Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
It’s easy to see why the Painted Bunting qualifies as North America’s most colorful songbird. It’s also easy to imagine why it might be kept as a popular caged bird in areas south of the United States where the bird winters and such a practice is not illegal. Doing so is made easier since it is primarily a seed eater.
But I’d like to focus on another quality it possesses that makes it such a favorite. Let’s call it tenacity. The first definition The American Heritage Dictionary offers for tenacious is “Holding or tending to hold persistently to something, such as a point of view”. No one could argue with the colorfulness of the bunting’s plumage, but what makes it even more commendable is that it retains this finery year-round. Unlike our ducks and many songbirds that look their finest only at mating time, the bunting holds onto its colors throughout the entire year.
A similar quality promoted in Scripture is perseverance, the quality of maintaining a consistent or adhering to a course of action. John admonishes us to: “Take care of yourselves; don’t throw away all the labour that has been spent on you, but persevere till God gives you your reward.” (II John 1:8 J.B. Phillips New Testament) If your belief is worth anything at all, it’s worth persevering to maintain it, or put another way, tenaciously hold onto what you really value.