In parts of the East, Indigo Bunting may be the most abundant songbird, with the deep-blue males singing along every roadside. The plain brown females are seen far less often, and they have good reason to be inconspicuous: they do almost all the work of caring for the eggs and young, hidden away in dense thickets.

This species favors brushy edges rather than unbroken forest, and is probably far more common today than when the Pilgrims landed.