Don't it Make My Brown Feathers....BLUE

I'm gonna be taking a couple of days from blogging of sorts 'cause today Bud and I are just gonna bum around all day, away from the dragging-down news of the world, etc. We will take ourselves out to lunch and perhaps spend the day shopping. Then, on Friday, we will be having a plumber stop by and replace our kitchen faucet. Long ago, when we were a lot more agile and younger, we used to do the DIY home improvements ourselves. We are too stiff and unable to move about much so...it's gonna be done professionally. A big expense, but well worth the time and money to have it done without crimps in the neck, shoulders, and back!!! I had them order a whole new style from the old, antiquated general look. The faucet that is curved and sloping downward. Dunno what it's called, but 'the in look' for today in home decor. LOL So, in the meantime, I will talk a bit about birds. Surprised? I didn't think so....

In the coastal region we don't see one of my favorite birds, the blue jay. When we lived in Colorado, year 'round, we had blue jays at our window feeders and I enjoyed watching them. This was long before I became infatuated in photographing birds seen. I just like birds!! Then, once upon a time, I read on the subject of pigmentation of the birds' feathers and learned that blue jays, among other blue birds such as indigo buntings and the bluebirds, that their color that WE see isn't a true color. Their feathers are NOT blue. In fact blue is the least color in the spectrum of birds. It's all more or less illusion. Which brings me to this little thing that I may begin doing often on my posts. Little bits and facts added at the end of my posts, on many different subjects...

FACT: The bright blue hue of a blue jay can be an eye-catching sight set against the dreary, drab backdrop of winter. In actuality, though, blue jays aren't really blue. Instead, the blue appearance is a trick of science, an optical illusion of sorts.

Whereas a cardinal, for example, gets its red plumage from red pigment, blue jays don't have any blue pigment. In fact, blue pigment is rare in nature. Instead, the pigment in a blue jay's feathers — melanin — is brown, but we perceive it as blue because of a phenomenon called light scattering, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. If you look at the feather in normal light conditions, it will appear blue, just as it does when you see the bird in nature. If you backlight the feather, however, it will appear brown. [I have done this as an experiment, and it's true...I see dull, dark, brown] This is because the light won't be reflected back — there is no prism effect —so we will see the melanin in the feather instead of the reflection of the blue light.

Source

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!