Red Birds Rock It; #1 feathers

It's now a decade since I was looking here at colours in nature, and red was one of the more obvious ones. I doubt that many people reading this were also reading back then, and I'm very sure that no-one remembers it! However I have no interest in just recycling old posts, but a lot of interest in revisiting interesting topics with the benefit of the intervening years, and a lot more photos. So here is a glowing new post on red in nature - specifically birds' feathers for now at least. It will be the first in a short series.

Male Crimson Chat Epthianura tricolor, central Australia,
carrying a grasshopper to feed chicks. This bird glows red!

The chat, like almost all other birds, can't manufacture the carotenoid pigments which give it the exquisite colouring, but must extract them from its food and store them in its liver until the new feathers are produced at the next moult, when the pigment is incorporated. This is an energy-intensive process, to the extent that hardly any birds are all-red. Nor is the chat getting its red glory from the grasshopper - the carotenoids (and there are many different ones) are produced by plants, which the bird acquires especially from berries, flowers and seeds. In the chat's case, it is probably mostly from seeds.

It is relevant too that only the male chat is red; she is plain brown with a pinkish wash. As I said, it costs a lot to produce the colour, and she doesn't have to impress anyone - he must make a statement about his fitness, and all she does is assess his application. Her criterion is the intensity of his colour, which is effectively a measurement of his health and vitality; "I'm so fit that I can afford to spend a lot of spare energy simply in order to look as gorgeous as possible".

A few waterbirds do get their carotenoid dose from animals (especially brine shrimps) but these in turn get them from algae.

American Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber, Santa Cruz, Galápagos.
The specific carotenoid in this case is Astaxanthin, which is widely (and often illegally)
used in tanning salons to turn humans reddish (or orange in some well-publicised cases).

Flamingo chicks hatch a dirty white colour and only turn pink/red after being fed shrimps, and after their first moult. Captive flamingoes must be fed Astaxanthin as a food supplement, or they will fade after their next moult. 

(I have so many examples to choose from for this series that I'm going to concentrate on birds that are really red - or at least partly so - rather than pink or orange; I reckon that this flamingo has enough real red to qualify. The story that comes with it helps it to qualify too.)

Scarlet-backed Woodpecker Veniliornis callonotus, Sipan, northern Peru.
This is a bird of the dry woodlands of the Pacific coast of southern Colombia,
Ecuador and northern Peru.

Since hardly any birds can be all red, they must use other colours as contrast; somewhat unusually, this woodpecker has 'chosen' white. Green is a popular option, but the most striking and widely used versions contrast red with black, which is based on melanins that the bird can readily manufacture. The woodpecker above has a fringe of black along the wing edge, and a black tail; the female also has a black cap. So prevalent is this contrast that I am going to feature black-and-red birds in their own forthcoming post.

Not quite all birds however are reliant on diet-based carotenoids for red colouring. Parrots alone can synthesise a quite different group of pigments called psittacofulvins or, more simply, psittacins, to produce reds, oranges and yellows. It's curious in that parrots have carotenoids in their blood, but don't use them as other birds do. It seems that their ancestors hadn't learnt that trick, and the parrots came up with the psittacofulvin idea after they were isolated from other bird groups. Psittacofulvins produce brighter reds than carotenoids, and give greater protection against feather-damaging bacteria. Because these psittacofulvins are apparently cheaper to produce, parrots can afford to be more profligate with them, but of course they can't afford to look too much like everyone else so don't simply daub themselves all in red.

Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans above, and Australian King Parrot
Alisterus scapularis below, both in Canberra (the King Parrot was taken through my
study window, hence the slight murkiness of the photo) and flaunting their psittacofulvin finery.
The rosella in particular is close to having all its body feathers red which as we'll see is quite unusual.

So, if being all-red is just too extravagant to be a viable option, where do birds wear their show-off red feathers? Since there's no single simple answer to this, I tried putting the pictures I'd chosen into categories. One obvious place to bring your very-redness to others' attentions in an unmissable way is on the head, and several of my subjects do just this in examples from three continents.

Eastern Rosella Platycercus eximius, Canberra; it may be coincidence, though I
don't think so, that the only two of this (small) sample with red extending from the
head down breast and/or back are parrots, whose psittacofulvins can be spent
with more largesse than other birds with their expensive carotenoids.

Red-and-green Macaws Ara chloropterus, Blanquillo Clay Lick, Peruvian Amazonia.
In these spectacular big parrots the red covers most of the front of the body too.

 

Some other red-headed parrots are more sparing with their redness. 

Red-capped Parrot Purpureicephalus spurius, Albany, Western Australia. This glorious
Western Australian endemic specialises in extracting tiny seeds from the huge and
formidably hard seed cases of Marri Corymbia (or Eucalyptus) calophylla. It is the
only species in its genus.
Of course not all these birds are going to fit into my categories as to where they wear
their red; the Red-capped also has that elegant little patch on the thigh.

The exquisite Pink Cockatoo Lophochroa leadbeateri of inland woodlands is arguably
the most beautiful of all cockatoos, though of course that is totally subjective and human-centric.
It doesn't really have a red head of course; that is the same dilute pink as the rest of it body.
The gorgeous red and yellow crest is only visible when it is raised in display or warning,
though the red line just above the bill is always visible.

Here are a couple of barbets, from Africa in the Old World family Lybiidae and one from the New World family Capitonidae, showing very different degrees of red-headedness.

Red-and-yellow Barbet Trachyphonus erythrocephalus, Amboseli NP, Kenya.
There's no doubting the redness of the cheeks, but the crown is black and white.

Male Red-headed Barbet Eubucco bourcierii, Bosque de Tolomuco in the central mountains
of Costa Rica. She has a more affordable yellow head with blue cheeks.

Red-crested Cardinal Paroaria coronata, southern Pantanal, Brazil.
This cardinal is actually a tanager, but when you've been around tanagers
for a while this sort of thing starts to seem normal! There's no doubting its
"admire my red head" message though. Like the Scarlet-backed Woodpecker
earlier it uses a white body to frame its redness.

Another woodpecker, this one from Africa. Male Nubian Woodpecker Campethera nubica
Serengeti NP, Tanzania (actually taken from our lodge balcony). Just a crown-and-nape
for him, while she has only the nape red.

On scrutinising my photos I realised that quite a few birds have their red on their undersides. This seemsed a bit surprising initially, then I realised that if you're standing up facing the one you're trying to impress (be it potential mate or rival) this is actually a pretty good strategy. Some have substantial red on their breasts and bellies.

Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus moluccanus, Emerald Botanic Gardens, Queensland.
A very familiar bird which is rapidly extending its range inland in south-eastern Australia,
but still breathtakingly colourful. In addition to its red (and orange) breast, it also has red
eyes and bill, both of which we'll look at next timel

Truly an 'oh-my-goodness' bird, the male Resplendent Quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno
(here in the Savegre Valley of central Costa Rica) is one of the most stunning
birds I've ever experienced. The iridescent green shimmers and changes colour
according to the light, and the red glows in the cloud forest. (The extended
tail feathers can be almost a metre long, though are generally about half that.)
It is the national bird of Guatemala.

Other quetzals tend to get overlooked by comparison, but this Golden-headed Quetzal
Pharomachrus auriceps in the Mindo Valley of northern Ecuador is far from shabby too.

Toucan Barbet Semnornis ramphastinus, also in the Mindo Valley. (This is one of
two members of the third barbet family Semnornithidae. I'd love to do a post on
barbets some day, but I'm not sure how much interest there would be; maybe I should just indulge myself anyway!) I'm sure it's no coincidence that a lot of red turns up in fruit-eating families
like trogons (ie quetzals) and barbets.

Scarlet-chested Sunbird Chalcomitra senegalensis, Serengeti NP, Tanzania.
This is an immature male, with riveting red chest, but I wish I could show
you an adult male, which is almost black all over with an iridescent greeen crown.

Other birds have red underneath which is much more obscure, being low on the belly or just comprising a bar or patch. 

Eastern Double-collared Sunbird Cinnyris mediocris, cental Kenya.
Another bird with just a narrow red breastband; again contrasted with green.

The Eastern Blubonnet Northiella haematogaster is a widespread parrot of inland Australia,
which is actually quite plain (brownish with dull blue wings and face) except for
the red belly on a yellow background. They often feed on the ground or in foliage
so the red is only evident when they fly, when it is an excellent field characteristic.
Perhaps it is a signal to other members of the flock whilst in flight.

Here are two more Australian parrots with red just on the belly or vent, so mostly only visible from below.

Male Mulga Parrot Psephotellus varius, Mutawintji NP, western NSW.
A delightful little ground-feeding parrot of the dry inland, with red on the belly and thighs only.

Northern Rosella Platycercus venustus, an uncommon and unusual rosella
of the Top End of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley district of northern
Western Australia. It is mostly mottled black above and scalloped pale yellow below,
with that striking red belly and vent - but only striking if you're underneath it.
This one was above our camp in Nitmiluk NP, south of Darwin.

Chestnut-eared Aracari Pteroglossus castanoti, Pousada Arara, northern Pantanal, Brazil.
The aracaris are a group of small toucans; here the only red is the red belly bar, again against yellow,
and a red rump.

Here is another toucan, one of the big ones this time, with similar red pattern - belly (though all of it in this case) and rump.

Green-billed Toucan Ramphastos dicolorus, Trilha dos Tucanons, near Sao Paulo,
Brazil. Above and below.

This flash of red rump allows me to introduce what I'm describing as the fourth type of use of red (after most of the body, featuring the head and featuring the breast). This involves a small highlight, perhaps a spot or a small blaze or flash of red. Not too much energy is involved in producing those relatively few red feathers but its effect is undoubted; that highlight stands out disproportionately to its size. Well it does to me anyway; perhaps it doesn't to you, and who knows how it appears to the birds, the only ones who really matter here? However there must be a purpose to it and we do know that birds see red well. And quite subjectively I do like the understatedness of some of these 'flashes'.

Here are a few more red rumps on display.

Male Spotted Pardalote Pardalotus punctatus, through my study window - he was attacking
spiders in their webs in the corners of the sliding doors. Just a hint of red rump here,
merging into orange.

But there are no rules to say that a red rump precludes another red spot or so elsewhere. Here are a couple of Australian grass finches (Family Estrildidae) to model this option.

Red-browed Finches Neochmia temporalis on wet rainforested Mount Lewis, tropical
Queensland. Someone - not me! - had put out seed in this remote site, almost certainly
to attract the Blue-faced Parrot-finches which this place is nenowned for. It's one of the very
few reliable sites for them in Australia, and I imagine one of the local bird guides was trying
to improve the chances for their clients. However these Red-brows are common throughout
eastern Australia.

Red-eared Firetail Stagonopleura oculata, Albany, Western Australia, where it is endemic.
Just a touch of red on the cheek this time, along with the fiery rump. Not an easy one
to get a good look at, in my experience.

The little red cheek spot appears in other birds too, including this African grass finch.

Red-cheeked Cordon-bleus Uraeginthus bengalus, Serengeti NP, Tanzania.
Only the male has the spot. This little finch is found in a broad band right
across sub-Saharan Africa. This little puddle in the road behind the visitor
centre was a magnet for an amazing array of birds.

Male Cockatiel Nymphicus hollandicus, Mount Magnet, inland Western Australia.
This, the smallest of all cockatoos, is found throughout dry inland Australia.
In their case both males and females flaunt the cheek spot.

Double-eyed Fig-Parrot Cyclopsitta diophthalma, Cairns, tropical Queensland.
These tiny parrots are indeed fig specialists; in addition to the splash of red across
the cheek he has a tiny red spot on the forehead and the tiniest splash of red on
the tip of his secondary wing feathers. These last two adornments are very subtle indeed.

Even more subtle is this South American parrot from a small area of south-western Brazil and adjacent Paraguay

Blaze-winged Parakeet Pyrrhura devillei, southern Pantanal, Brazil.
In addition to the tiny shoulder spot of red, they have red underwings too.

Hartlaub's Turaco Tauraco hartlaubi, Mount Kenya. In its case (this could be a male or female)
most of the flight feathers are actually in red but this shows only in flight. While at rest
they are nearly hidden by the wing covert feathers. There is also a red skin patch around
the eye; we'll see more of these next time.

Swift Parrot Lathamus discolor Canberra. This rare and Critically Endangered little parrot

has a strikingly red forehead and chin, plus the pencil-thin tail. It breeds in the Blue Gum

forests of Tasmania - which are still being logged - and flies across the Bass Strait to winter
in the highly degraded woodlands of the south-east mainland.

 

This lovely pipit is a Rosy-throated Longclaw Macronyx ameliae, here in the grasslands
of Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. The red (or pink or orange) little throat patch really stands out.

Finally for today the Neotropical tanagers are one of the most colourful groups of birds in the world, but red doesn't feature heavily - except when paired with black, which is where we'll meet some more in a future post. Here's a beauty from Brazil which favours an obvious red neck.

Red-necked Tanager Tangara cyanocephala at Espinheiro Negro, south of Sao Paulo.

That's probably enough red for now, but there's plenty more to come! Next time I want to explore how birds use red pigments that aren't in feathers - in skin, legs, beaks and eyes. Hope you'll be back for that!

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 4 MAY

 

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