Photo: Curtis Zutz

Lazuli bunting captured mid-flight by South Okanagan photographer.

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Photo: Curtis Zutz Photo: Curtis Zutz Photo: Curtis Zutz Photo: Curtis Zutz

A South Okanagan wildlife photographer captured a sensational bright blue and orange lazuli bunting mid-flight over the weekend.

Early Sunday morning, Curtis Zutz was waiting out in the back of his property after a fresh rain fall when he saw movement in a small pine tree close to the ground.

"It was this lazuli, he was giving himself a bath with the water drops in the needles," he said.

"Then he flew out and landed on a branch of a fallen tree closer to me. He was preening himself there for a bit then kind of crouched down, took a poop, that is a telltale sign that they will take off, so I quickly changed a camera setting so I could catch him taking off."

The lazuli bunting is a migratory bird that breeds across the Great Basin, the Cascade and the Rocky Mountains. It frequents the South Okanagan in shrubby and brush-filled areas.

To view more of Curtis Zutz's photography, click here.