Blue Grosbeaks are So Very Blue

Their color is really magical

Blue Grosbeaks are another one of those birds that seem to take your breath away. The bright blue is such a delightful surprise. I visited Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary one morning in June and saw my first Blue Grosbeak of the season.

Blue Grosbeaks are long distance migrants as their range map shows but they are very common throughout the summers in southern Arizona.

The males have a deep blue color and an enormous silvery bill for which it is named. They have two wingbars described as a chestnut color.

The male Blue Grosbeak also has a small black mask in front of its eyes.

Every time I see a Blue Grosbeak I am reminded of how amazing our natural world is. The blue is such a bold and striking color, and yet the bird’s feathers are not really colored blue! Blue feathers that we see on birds are not pigmented blue. They may actually be gray or brown in color but the appearance of vibrant blue is an optical illusion created by how microscopic structures in the feathers bend and scatter light!! The Smithsonian Institution explains how this happens.

If you would like to learn more about “What Makes Bird Feathers so Colorfully Fabulous”, Audubon covers the topic well here. So even though blue feathers are not really blue, a Blue Grosbeak is still a really stunning bird to see.