How come there are no green birds? I’m thinking this as I walk in the woods.
It’s cold, gray. But the leaves of late spring are big and clean, green on green. Ireland couldn’t hold a shamrock to this place.
But, why no green birds? Wouldn’t green make a great camo color?
Yeah, I know there are green parrots in jungles, and a Green Woodpecker in Europe—although it’s khaki. We’ve got a Green Heron, but a better name for this bird would be a Not-green Heron.
No, I’m talking about bright, leaf-green birds. You’d have thought evolution would have led to a few. Then, I’m suddenly stopped.
A Scarlet Tanager appears on a branch in front of me. It’s mostly the color of a stop sign.
Attention-getting red. And it has black wings and a black tail. The black seems to understand what a wing is, what a tail is. It’s not random; it’s a matter of placement.
This purposeful pattern is as imponderable an evolutionary question as the one about why there are no green birds.
He takes off. Where red once stopped me, now there’s just green again. I move down the trail.
On the way, I hit a streak of sightings. I know guys who gamble, and they talk about streaks. When you’re on one, you know it.
The trail had been quiet, but then I see a Red-eyed Vireo. I stop. While there, I notice a Chestnut-sided Warbler. Then a Great-crested Flycatcher. Streak’s on.
There’s an Ovenbird on the ground. Palm Warblers, a bunch of generic, un-identifiable female warblers, the butt-end of a disappearing American Redstart.
Then, the streak’s over.
I head for the trailhead. On the way, I start thinking about green again. The bright foliage is demanding; you’ve got to think about it.
And the idea hits: Hey, maybe there really ARE leaf-green birds. Nobody ever sees them. Their camo is that good. You could be looking at them right now, and never know.
Driving away, I come to a real stop sign at the side of the forest road. Red against green. Once again, I stop.
"STOP"
How about the Texas Green Jay?
Hi Mike,
“Stop Sign” may be my favorite story – including mine. I’m still smiling.
Great work!!!
“Love the analogy–“stop” and I will think of it when I’m out and about, on a trail or not. We need red birds and others to remind us to stop and notice the miracles all around us.”
Because the birds that get attention are the successful breeders? I’m guessing that small birds don’t need camo because they have another, more effective defense–they can fly!