Blue Birds

What could be more boring than starting a blog post with a Wikipedia quotation? So here goes: “The symbol of a bluebird as the harbinger of happiness is found in many cultures and may date back thousands of years”.

Anyway, just another excuse to look through my bird photos and show you some of them. For simplicity, I have restricted myself to birds with the word “blue” in their name, even though that excludes some gorgeous blue birds such as the Verditer Flycatcher or the various kingfishers. Still, there are some nice ones left – though, despite all having the word “blue” in their name, some of them seem surprisingly unblue.

And yes, I could probably do this for other colors as well. So if you are thinking of redecorating your living room in a specific color and need the right bird photos for it, feel free to contact me. After all, most of them will look nicer than an electric chair, despite what Andy Warhol said (“You’d be surprised how many people want to hang an electric chair on their living-room wall. Specially if the background color matches the drapes”).

Blue Nuthatch (Fraser`s Hill, Malaysia)

Blue Rock Thrush (Shanghai, China)

Blue Waxbill (Mkuze, South Africa)

Blue-and-white Flycatcher (Shanghai, China): While the adult male really knows his blue color, the female does not. And the juvenile male is clearly still practicing.

Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Wuyuan, China): A critically endangered species only found in one Chinese province, Jiangxi. It was previously treated as a subspecies of the yellow-throated laughingthrush, but that species has a pale grey crown. Blue matters.

Blue-faced Honeyeater (Brisbane, Australia): Only the adults are blue-faced, green indicates juveniles.

Blue-fronted Redstart (Shanghai, China)

Blue-naped Pitta (Hongbenghe, China)

Blue-rumped Pitta (Nonggang, China)

Blue-throated Bee-Eater (HongAn, China)

Blue whistling Thrush (Fuzhou, China)

Blue-winged Laughingsthrush (Baihualing, China)

Blue-winged Minla (Baihualing, China)

Bluethroat (Shanghai, China)

Eurasian Blue Tit (Visselhoevede, Germany): Yes, there are colorful birds in Germany, too.

Great Blue Heron (Nevada, USA): A bit of a cheat, this one – the only reason why it is not called grey but blue is probably because the name Grey Heron was already taken …

Greater Blue-eared Starling (Kruger Park, South Africa)

Hainan Blue Flycatcher (Nonggang, China)

Hill Blue Flycatcher (Nabang, China)

Pale Blue Flycatcher (Hongbenghe, China)

Red-billed Blue Magpie (Shanghai, China)

Red-flanked Bluetail (Shanghai, China): The female only has a blue tail, the male is blue all over.

Himalayan Bluetail (Tengchong, China): Similar to the Red-flanked Bluetail, but even more intensely blue.

Siberian Blue Robin (Shanghai, China): Similar to the Blue-and-white Flycatcher, only the adult male truly knows his blue. Still, the light blue of the immature male looks nice, too.

More birds (in a larger variety of colors) on my website.