hello diann and tweeters,

well, i love all the birds that i see, yes, even those pesky english
sparrows. they all have lessons to teach us mere humans, if we were
only gracious and intelligent enough to listen and learn from them.

that said, i will admit to being strongly interested in plumage color,
both on an evolutionary level and also for the aesthetics of it, which
the bunting has in abundance. on the other hand, i am delighted and
attracted to loons, particularly common loons, because of the elegance
and beauty of their strong, contrasty coloring. yet, one could never
accuse them of being "colorful."

and the little girl who first discovered the bunting was obviously
operating at the same level that most of us are with regards to
plumage color. let's face it, bright colors on small bird are very
attractive to those who live in a world that is flat, grey and rainy
most of the time.

anywho, it is safe to say that i, at least, am not only interested in
colors, but also in contrasts. because birds are so strongly visual,
as humans are, i spend a fair amount of time thinking about the sorts
of messages that are transmitted by these plumage colors, wondering
what sorts of conditions allowed these species to evolve one sort of
color patterns instead of another.

alas, but i ramble. and i will warn you all now, don't EVEN get me
started musing about bird SONG, which touches and inspires me beyond
all words (of course, that doesn't stop me from trying to talk about
the aesthetics of birdsong, anyway!)

regards,

Deborah Wisti-Peterson, PhD Candidate nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://students.washington.edu/~nyneve/
Love the creator? Then protect the creation.

On Tue, 19 Mar 2002, Diann MacRae wrote:

> Deborah and anyone else interested,
>
> I'd be interested in knowing why juncos are not as wonderful as painted
> buntings . . . any comments?
>
> Cheers, Diann
>