Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#273

This is a Red-winged Blackbird and I think I'm right in saying that it's a juvenile, not an adult female? The back of the head seems to be much lighter than an adult female, and juveniles do look rather like an adult female, and not like an adult male. Amazing how different the females are from the jet black males with with their red patches. I always remember the very first time I saw a female, quite a few years ago, and I thought I was looking at some kind of Sparrow, ha. Photo was taken on 28 June 2014, when I went for a drive along some of the backroads SW of the city. Today, 1 July 2014, is Canada Day. Happy Canada Day to all fellow Canadians, whether here or living around the world! We live in such a great and free country, which is something to be remembered and thankful for, each and every day! A special wish and thank-you for all those Canadians who are serving our country, especially overseas! This is Canada's 147th birthday - we are so young! "Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada) is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act, 1867 (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united three colonies into a single country called Canada within the British Empire. Originally called Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), the holiday was renamed in 1982, the year the Canada Act was passed. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as among Canadians internationally." From Wikipedia.

I have just uploaded a batch of 30 photos from Flickr - I had fallen way behind! Photographed this beautiful female Mountain Bluebird on 7 June 2014, when I went for a drive along the backroads SW of the city. Though the females don't show the bright blue of the males, they have such a wonderful mix of more subtle colours. They really do have a beauty of their own. This female had just fed a mouthful of insects to her babies in the nesting box. In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays." www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...