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In full sunlight, the five and half inch Indigo Bunting is a startling and beautiful sight. How often people knowing of my interest in birds, telephone or stop me to say, “I saw a beautiful bird, blue all over, in the road today (or on an electric wire).” This happens every summer. Many are quick to point out that it was not a Bluebird they had seen. “I know a bluebird,” they say. “A Bluebird is not blue all over like this bird.”
What is it about the color blue that causes such a strong positive reaction? It is rare in birds. The Bluebird, the Eastern Bluebird, to be correct omithologically and politically, is now well known to most watchers. Backyard next boxes have made them familiar.
There are Blue Jays, of course. Several shades of blue plus gray, white and even lilac are present in this bold bird’s plumage. That’s about it for common birds, those we see every day if we are looking.
The tiny Black-throated Blue Warbler is a deep shade of blue set off by a black throat and clear white breast. This bird is rare and seen only in migration except on the high mountains of Virginia where it nests in laurel thickets.
Another warbler, the four and half inch Parula Warbler, has a blue head and back, and a dark rusty band across its yellow breast. This bird is also somewhat rare and so tiny and active that it’s difficult to see even when present during migration.
That’s about it for birds with blue feathers except for the Blue Grosbeak, which is rare and distinctly southern in distribution. In A Field Guide To The Bij^s, Peterson describes this bird as a “...deep dull blue.” I detect purple in this grosbeak that is the size of a
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