Tweets,

When I teach seabird identification, I show a slide of a Flesh-footed
Shearwater and point out the pink bill is a key field-mark. Every time,
some members of the class object that the bill is actually yellow and not
pink. When put to a vote there will invariably be a 50/50 split between
those who think the bird in the slide has a yellow bill and those who
think it has a pink bill. There is no correlation between the age or sex
of the class members and how they vote on this question. All members are
seeing exactly the same color.

As the instructor, I explain that the bill is, in fact, pink and that all
students should use the term pink to describe this color from now on.

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Joe Morlan
Albany, CA
jmorlan at slip.net