Afternoon Blue

Are Bluebird feathers really blue?


“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.” 
~Si.edu


The afternoon light helped me see his feathers as incredibly blue. His mate, a bit more muted and gray was watching from a nearby tree branch. (See the Extra)


For the Record,
This day came in sunny and much warmer.


All hands missing our usual February snow.