I shake snow off my coat and get in an elevator. I’m in a city building. Couldn’t be avoided. No woodland walks today, no bird sightings likely. Or so I thought.
Before the doors close a young woman hops in. She’s smiling and says “happy new year.” We don’t know each other, but the season’s got her in a good mood.
She’s wearing a jacket with drawings of Disney characters all over it. It’s cheerful. Like she is. But this doesn’t change things. We’re indoors, and the elevator grinds along.
I notice her jacket has a Disney bluebird on the shoulder. This makes me smile in spite of myself. I remember the old song, “There’s a bluebird on my shoulder” from a long-ago cartoon. That’s a mood improver.
Yeah, but the bird guy in me wonders: what kind of bluebird? There’s no species with that single name. This is of no real importance. It’s just a song from a cartoon. Still, it was something to think about while standing in a slow-moving elevator.
I figure it’s gotta be a Mountain Bluebird. The colors are right. But it could be an Eastern Bluebird. Maybe a Western Bluebird. Then, out of the blue comes the slight possibility that it’s an Indigo Bunting. Can’t rule out a Lazuli Bunting.
Or a Blue Grosbeak, Blue Jay, Scrub Jay. What about a Steller’s Jay? How about those blue tanagers from South America. There are blue birds in the tropics, Europe, Africa, everywhere. In Eurasia, even the kingfishers are blue.
So when the cheerful old song goes, “…there’s a bluebird on my shoulder,” it might be okay musically but it’s vague ornithologically. And who cares! The bluebird can be anything or nothing; it’s just a cartoon.
But thinking about it made the elevator ride a little easier to take. I get out at my stop and say happy new year to the woman in the Disney jacket. Zip-a-dee doo-dah.
