Are Bluebirds Blue?

Are bluebirds blue?  This sounds like one of those trick questions on a test in school, doesn't it?  The answer, strictly speaking, is no, the color blue in a bird is a structural color.  Light is scattered and reflected by tiny structures in the feathers of these birds which results in one single color...blue! In North America, this applies to the Eastern Bluebird, the Blue-Jay, and the Indigo Bunting.  We once watched a TV show that said if you took a bluebird feather and pounded it into a powder, then the powder would be a light gray in color.  If you see a bluebird on a wire, it may look gray or brownish, but then when it flies away and the sun hits it just right, you will be rewarded by the most brilliant of blues and it truly is a breathtaking sight...


Arthur Cleveland Bent, one of America's greatest ornithologists, wrote the following:


"The bluebird is well named, for he wears a coat of the purest, richest, and most gorgeous blue on back, wings, and tail; no North American bird better deserves the name, for no other flashes before our admiring eyes so much brilliant blue. It has been said that he carries on his back the blue of heaven and the rich brown of the freshly turned earth on his breast; but who has ever seen the bluest sky as blue as the bluebird's back?"

 

This photo is a juvenile bluebird and was taken on June 29 in my backyard and it was over 100 degrees.  Can you tell how widely the bird's beak is open?  I was most concerned for these birds, there were three of them in all and they all had their beaks open like this and I have never seen birds do this before.  I called my husband at work and he said that he had read that this is a way for the birds to cool themselves and to make sure that I had some fresh water for them.  (And you know that I did!) 

There, do you see what I mean about the beaks being wide open?  That is a tufted titmouse in the top photo and one of the bluebirds in the bottom photo.  No more photos after this, I said, "Have at it, my little bird friends, bathe and drink in that cool water, it is all yours and I will not disturb you."  And with that, I closed my blinds and left them in peace.

The quote that I gave to you above from Arthur Cleveland Bent?  You should look him up and read about him, he was really a businessman who took a lifelong interest in birds and studied them and became quite an expert in ornithology.  He wrote 21 volumes of the Life Histories of North American Birds...yes, that is correct, 21 volumes.  That is a lot of observation and study, but I'll just bet that all of his business dealings didn't amount to all the joy that he got from his birds.

Birds are free!  Observe them and enjoy them!