Painted buntings have a sweet, clear song — a series of lilting notes tripping up and down the scale that earlier this month led wildlife officer Matthew Rubenstein to the scene of a crime.

The jewel-colored migrants’ breeding range includes Georgia, South Carolina and Texas, with many of them wintering in Southwest Florida, to the delight of birders.

But ornithological enthusiasts aren’t the only ones on the lookout for the tiny critters.

Poachers prize them too, hanging wooden traps baited with captive buntings to lure their wild fellows. After being nabbed, the male birds can sell for up to $200 in flea markets or gas stations, reports the Tropical Audubon Society. Jade-toned females bring in about $50.

“Many end up in clandestine gambling competitions, or races, that pit one bird against another,” according to a 2016 story in the magazine BirdWatching. “The first to sing an agreed-upon number of songs, or the bird that sings the longest song, wins.”

Beyond the cruelty of capturing wild creatures, taking painted buntings out of circulation puts pressure on an already dwindling population of birds, which are protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Act and categorized as a “species of concern” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Four members of that species are now back where they belong, thanks to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Rubenstein’s eagle ears. After he heard that characteristic song while patrolling near Rookery Bay Reserve in Collier County, he looked for the source of the noise.

“I noticed a bird trap that is used for catching small migratory bird species," he wrote in the report he later filed.

Inside the home on Hibiscus Lane, he spotted two caged buntings: a male and a female being kept by Juan Omar Conde de Leon, who “stated the birds were his and didn't want any problems that he would just go and let them go.”

Instead, Rubenstein confiscated the birds, which were tattered and scraped from battering against the cage bars. Rubenstein issued Conde de Leon a citation alleging a misdemeanor violation of Florida's migratory bird law.

While Rubenstein was doing the paperwork, Conde de Leon told the officer his neighbor four trailers down had a pair of painted buntings too. So, Rubenstein headed there and found two more in a cage under the porch. He cited Zaida Perez, seized the birds and took all four to the von Arx Wildlife Hospital at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples.

“We get migratory birds all the time, usually from injury,” said Joanna Fitzgerald, the hospital’s director. “(But) this situation was new to me. ... They were very stressed, being kept in those tiny cages. They’re full-flighted birds, (so) they were constantly flying against the sides of the cage. One of them had a fairly noticeable wound over its beak that was bloodied from hitting against the bars of the wire cage.”

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The birds got some good food as well.

“They were a little thin; we did want them to gain some weight,” Fitzgerald said.

Then the birds hitched a ride north with a Conservancy staffer who was headed on vacation in the direction they would have migrated if they had not been caught. They were released “closer to where they should be at this time of year, so that was a good thing. …,” Fitzgerald said.

"We’re really glad that FWC got involved and was able to give these guys and gals a second chance a chance to be back in the wild," she said.

If there’s one thing Fitzgerald wants people to learn from this story, it’s to leave wild things where they belong.

“That someone would think it’s OK to take a wild animal and cage in that way is really heartbreaking,” she said. “Wildlife never make good pets. They have very specific nutritional requirements. Also, it’s just not ethical. There are birds that make good pets — cockatiels, parakeets — they’re bred to be pets.”

In contrast, the buntings were miserable, Fitzgerald said.

“They were never going to calm down and make good pets. They were going to be terrified of any handling their entire existence in those cages. It’s just cruel.”

Her message to would-be poachers?

“This is a state and a federal offense. It’s not worth it. You will get caught eventually, and so why put yourself in that position? And why do that to the animal?”