Indigo Bunting and singing the Blues
Enjoy this short photo essay of birds with “blue” plumage. While three are winging the blues, at the end is a bird that doesn’t like the blues. (Maybe it prefers “raspberry.”)
Remember blue feathers are due to microscopic feather structures and light reflectance, not blue-producing pigments. Sometimes birds identified with a different color can appear blue. An earlier link to this phenomenon is below the photo essay.
GO FIND OTHER SPECIES THAT STUNNINGLY SING THE BLUES IN NATURE
LIST OF SPECIES:
These blue beauties with an * asterisk have occurred or live in or transit through the Yucatan Peninsula. Those with ^ may also live in the US some or all the time and those with just their names were photographed in Brazil but their range includes other areas.
*^Indigo Bunting, Passerina cyanea, Colorín Azul (Spanish)
*^Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, Golodrina Bicolor (Spanish), Kusam (Mayan)
*^Purple Gallinule, Porphyrio martinicus, Gallineta Morada (Spanish)
*Blue-gray Tanager, Thraupis episcopus, Tangara Azulgris (Spanish)
*Red-legged Honeycreeper, Cyanerpes cyaneus, Mielero Patas Rojas (Spanish), Tsu’ust kaab (Mayan)
*^Blue Grosbeak, Passerina caerulea, Picogordo Azul
(Spanish)
*Yucatan Jay, Cyanocorax yucatanicus, Chara Yucateca (Spanish), Ch’eel (Mayan)
*^Eastern Bluebird, Sialia sialis, Azulejo Gorjicanelo
(Spanish)
^Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata
Blue-and-yellow Macaw, Ara ararauna
Hyacinth Macaw, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus
^Florida Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma coerulescens
REFERENCES:
Sal a Pajarear Yucatán (Guía de Aves), Birds and Reserves of the Yucatán Peninsula. A Guide to Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home
Cherie Pittillo, “nature inspired,” photographer and author, explores nature everywhere she goes. She’s identified 56 bird species in her Merida, Yucatan backyard view. Her monthly column features anecdotes about birding in Merida, Yucatan and also wildlife beyond the Yucatan.
Contact: all4birdies@gmail.com All rights reserved, ©Cherie Pittillo
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Thanks Cherie, fascinating stuff, and some great snaps ! A possibly unrelated tidbit form my early years in England. First Aid kits in our kitchens contained Band-Aids which were blue : the idea being that they would show up in a dish if one accidentally parted company with a wound, since there were not many foods which were blue. In fact, apart from Blueberries, I can’t think of many natural foods which are blue. Is it was interesting that you were able to produce so many birds of that hue. Always lovely to receive your column.
Thanks, James, for your kind comments and interesting tidbit. The next column will be a doozy!
How amusing that someone would think of blue band-aids as a safety feature. I hope they worked. Several shrubs produce enticing blue berries to attract birds for seed dispersal like goose berries, poke weed, huckleberries, and others.But I’ll take blueberries any day!
Great stuff Cherie! That image of the Indigo Bunting against a red background is particularly striking. Cheers!
Thanks, Ivan. Hope you’re publishing a book of your Merida images! I couldn’t believe it either when the bunting landed on a weed in front of that giant red lawn mower. I only got two shots and thank goodness it raised its wing.
Great images of so many blue birds! Next you can do an article on every other color too.
Thank you, Bruce. The next article is a doozy and probably a subject that most people have never realized!
Blue is my favorite color and apparently it is more advantageous to birds than red, orange, green and maybe yellow. There seems to be more with the blue colors if my limited bird color experience is a judge of any value. And you did the blue feathered friends beautifully!
One other thought on the color spectrum: Blue is the shortest wavelength we detect with our eyes but…I wonder how much better birds see blue? And then there is the UV vision birds may be detecting: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/50/10/854/233996#126015507
As for me, my thought of UV light which we get with our sunlight, it is a way to sterilize materials including dirty clothing we might wish to sun and air. And how about birds that sun themselves?
Thanks for all the comments and the link. That was posted in 2000. Several people responded that blue is their favorite color. However, I’m not sure blue plumage is more advantageous than other colors, including black, because the species would have evolved with what works for them. I know light reflectance impacts blue color. The Tree Swallow is usually identified as blue/green or primarily green, but I purposefully used that image to show the blue impact. Not all birds have UV vision, such as owls. And as far as other colors from pigments, a more recent electron microscopic study by Ms. McCoy on nine species of tanagers indicated males and females had the same amount of carotenoid pigments. The electron microscopy showed the male pigment structures were different shapes than the nano structures for the female. That is significant to me and how often the literature cites erroneously that generally. males have more pigments. Sunlight is great to reduce mites and other infestations on birds’ plumage in several species such as roadrunners, anis, and I think even the Brown Thrasher as I’ve watched it here locally sun bathe.