How Birds Got Their Colors

Kestral

This one is from the archives but worth repeating! It's been a long bitter winter in Maryland, and the birds are finally beginning to share their songs again. This morning I saw a robin and her baby scratching for earth worms when Zippy and I took our morning walk. A cardinal perched in a gingko tree looked as beautiful as he sounded against the fan shaped leaves. I'm still looking for my first Baltimore Oriole now that I'm living in Baltimore. (I'm a dedicated baseball fan so I see the non-feathered specimens almost daily!) 

Birds add vibrant color to our world. But do you know that at one time their feathers lacked the beautiful variations we see today?

An African American legend explains that at the beginning of time a torrential rain fell on the earth.  When it ended, the world was gifted with a glorious rainbow.  No one had ever seen such brilliant colors!

The birds were the first to see it and the flew swiftly to get closer, joyfully flying in and out of the brilliant, iridescent arch!  As they passed through the colors, their feathers were painted the gorgeous colors of the rainbow!

The cardinal fell in love with the red and spent most of his time flying in and out of the crimson stripe!  The goldfinches were charmed with the yellow, staying predominantly in that area!  Blue birds favored the blue, weaving in and out of the glorious blues.

Other birds, such as the kestral, flew through several different colors.  This caused stripes and spots of colors to form on his beautiful feathers!  The swift and exuberant hummingbird flew merrily in and out of every color, causing him to have his own iridescent rainbow, delightfully visible when the sun catches his feathers.  

Imagine! Two of our most delightful treasures, color and birds, working in harmony to create beauty that we see every day if we just stop to notice! 

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