The females raise two broods per season laying between 3 and 4 eggs per brood. The eggs are incubated for a period of 11 days until the altricial young hatch. Parental care of the young is solely the female's responsibility until fledging occurs 12-14 days later . Young male buntings tend to wander until their own breeding territory can be established. The majority of the displays are exhibited by the males.
Predatory response includes alarm calls and frantic fluttering.
Painted buntings are nocturnal, short to medium distant migrants. The eastern population molts prior to migration and travels directly to their wintering grounds in southern Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba. Habitat The western population's breeding habitat consists of partially open areas scattered with brush, riparian thickets and shrubbery. The eastern population's breeding habitat consists of scrub communities and the margins of maritime hammocks. Wintering habitat is similar for both the western and eastern populations, consisting of tropical forest margins and tropical savanna.