HUGHES COUNTY DEPUTIES WERE AMONG THOSE IN ATTENDANCE at a recent Autism Awareness in Law Enforcement seminar at the Holdenville Seminar Center. Pictured above are Deputy Josh Kelley, Undersheriff Trevor Teague, and Deputy Robert Whisnant.

With their vivid fusion of blue, green, yellow, and red, male Painted Buntings seem to have flown straight out of a child’s coloring book. Females and immatures are a distinctive bright green with a pale eyering. These fairly common songbirds breed in the coastal Southeast and in the south-central U.S., where they often come to feeders. They are often caught and sold illegally as cage birds, particularly in Mexico and the Caribbean, a practice that puts pressure on their breeding populations.