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Well I found out after some research online that the answer to this question is ALWAYS. There actually is no such thing as a blue bird. Scott Sillett, a wildlife biologist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center states, “Red and yellow feathers get their color from actual pigments, called carotenoids, that are in the foods birds eat,” Sillett explains. “Blue is different…no bird species can make blue from pigments. The color blue that we see on a bird is created by the way light waves interact with the feathers and their arrangement of protein molecules, called keratin. In other words, blue is a structural color. Different keratin structures reflect light in subtly different ways to produce different shades of what our eyes perceive as the color blue. A blue feather under ultraviolet light might look uniformly gray to human eyes.” I had no idea! I was convinced that the bluebird building the nest in my camera nest box was a male because it was just SO blue. Then the “real male” came in and he was even bluer yet, almost royal blue. So the light in the camera nest box was reflecting very strongly I see now. And incidentally, at night when the female bluebird sits on her three eggs, the image is actually in black and white because of the lack of reflected light. Mystery solved!
I guess what threw me is I have only observed the bluebirds in natural sunlight, and there is a clear difference between males and females. I knew the fact about the blue color, but it didn’t occur to me, though it should have, that the colors as seen by the camera in the nest box would be that much different. Anyway, good on you for staying on it and solving the mystery.
- Ira / Coastal NW Florida
Thank you for your responses and your encouraging words. As of today, there are four eggs. Hope all goes well for our bluebird friends!
I am sad to say that this brood did not go well. For some reason unknown to my inexperienced eyes, I watched the camera nest box clips as the mother bird carried 3 of the 4 eggs out of the nest. Maybe the three eggs were not viable or something spooked her?? Not sure. She was left with only one egg and then a wren came in, and in the flash of an eye, poked the remaining egg and threw it out. This is the first and only time I saw the wren. Not to be deterred, the bluebirds started again. There are four eggs in the nest box, and so far, so good. I have made a sparrow spooker, but I am reluctant to put a wren guard covering up the opening of the nest box. It just seems to invasive and I am worried it may scare the mother bird once again. The “new” eggs should hatch any day now. Here’s hoping it all goes well. The parent bluebirds work so hard!
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