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Courtesy OF Anita Mueller

This male painted bunting, in all its glory, was photographed by Anita Mueller of Williamsburg, who photographs birds as a hobby. She captured this image last Sunday amid raindrops, through the window of Benner and Wicinski's Whately home. "It was really spectacular," she said.

WHATELY - Bill Benner and Joe Wicinski are accustomed to feathered visitors - they have documented 112 species at feeders in their yard in the four years they have lived there.

Last week, an unexpected guest flew to the top of the list: a painted bunting.

"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Benner. "We came home from a bird walk, and it was sitting on the feeder."

Benner immediately emailed a bird-loving friend, then got word to Scott Surner, president of the Hampshire Bird Club. Then, Benner said with a laugh, "We started to clean the house."

The expected pilgrimage to Whately began not long after Surner emailed a "Rare Bird Alert" to club members, Benner said. Some 20 people showed up at their Webber Road home that first day, a week ago.

Bird expert Geoff LeBaron of Williamsburg said painted buntings and indigo buntings winter in mixed flocks in Florida and the Caribbean. Painted buntings seldom venture north of North Carolina, but a rash of unusually warm weather recently, with hot air streaming from the south, likely swept the bird here along with indigo buntings. Indigo buntings breed here, he said.

LeBaron, who works for the National Audubon Society and is director of the Christmas Bird Count internationally, has seen some marvelous birds over the years.

Even so, the bunting stunned him.

"It threw everyone for a loop," said LeBaron, adding that he has seen only one in Massachusetts, in the fall a couple of years ago in Huntington. "It's a snazzy bird, and a rare bird here."

Part of the bird's charm, LeBaron said, is its color. "It's like taking the brightest colors you can find and dropping them in chunks (onto the bird)," he said of its defined sections of red, blue and lime green.

According to the Web site Whatbird.com, it is the only bird in the U.S. with a blue head and red underparts.

As a species, LeBaron said, painted buntings are in decline everywhere. He cited two reasons: They are caught in Caribbean countries, which don't have laws against their capture, and sold as caged birds. Also, they are losing their habitat, which is brushy tangles, woodland edges and swampy areas, to development.

Benner, hailing the feathered beauty as a "life bird" - one birders hope to see in their lifetimes - said people from throughout New England traveled to Whately over the weekend.

Because Benner's Whately yard provides the cover buntings love, and lots of seeds, the bird, an adult male, hung around. That meant wonderful viewing opportunities for the more than 80 people who showed up. Benner and Wicinski, both veterinarians, invited visitors to sign a guest book marking the occasion.

LeBaron shared a story about one visitor who was especially excited. He had run into an acquaintance, Joshua Hyslip, 10, of Williamsburg, in the post office. LeBaron told the youngster he had just returned from a birding trip. Joshua, an avid birder, asked a strange question.

"Out of the blue, he asked whether I had seen a painted bunting," LeBaron said. "Then, two days later, a painted bunting shows up in Whately. It was so bizarre."

Joshua later explained. "It's my second-favorite bird (next to hummingbirds)," he said of the bunting, which he has admired in books. "(LeBaron) is a bird expert and that's a rare bird. That's why I asked."

Hyslip, Joshua, and his brother, Jeremiah, all got to see the bird. Joshua photographed it through a spotting scope. "It had a red ring around its eye. It was really colorful," he said.

Last Sunday, the bunting flew to the top of a tree - and took off for good. LeBaron wasn't surprised. "Overmigrants hang out, have a good feed and head off." They have to, he said. "(This one) is a long way from any female painted bunting."

As for Benner and Wicinski, the visitor left its imprint. "Because we're so into (birding), it was such a great thing to see it, and host other birders and sit around and talk. It's an outstandingly gorgeous bird."