Some Creative Artistry

One of my Facebook friends (and friend in real life) is a photographer who likes to shoot, among other things, birds.  Yesterday, he posted a picture on line and asked for help in identification.  We since have identified it as a female painted bunting. 

She is bright green all over, but more pale on the underneath side.  She is very different from the male of the species, which is one of the most colorful birds I know.

Painted buntings are in our neck of the woods for a relatively short time.  Additionally, we are on kind of the fringe of their habitat, so they aren’t nearly as common as cardinals, robins, or other species we know so well.

God must have gone overboard in creating the male of this species.  He is red, blue, yellow, green, and other colors I can’t even describe.  He would be an unmistakable bird to see in the wild. 

I have to wonder how evolution accounts for the brilliant colors of the male.  I know how I account for them.

Seeing a male painted bunting in the wild is on my bucket list, and has been ever since my parents gave me a plastic model of the painted bunting years ago (about 55, to be more exact).  I put the model together and painted it per the instructions.  I thought the instructions were wrong and exaggerated the bird.  I could hardly believe that something so colorful was actually in nature.  Yet it is indeed true.

Don (my friend) was able to photograph the female.  Now he’s on the lookout for the male.  I hope he finds him, and I hope he is able to take his mug shot.  ‘Twould be quite a feather (ahem) in his cap to do so.