The iridescence of some birds’ feathers is remarkable, including some that I’ll share today like bronzewings, ducks, ibis, Emerald Dove, peacock, Welcome Swallow and the absurdly named Black-necked Stork.
I was staggered when this beautiful species was renamed Black-necked Stork. The name Jabiru relates to a species from the Americas so it made sense to change it, but this stork’s neck is stunningly iridescent with feathers that sparkle. They also have incredible eyes with amazing nictitating eyelids that I shared images of previously, they are worth a look: Stork’s Extraordinary Eye
The male Chestnut Teal often appears to have a black head unless the sun is shining on it at the right angle when the feathers take on an exquisite green sheen.
The speculum of ducks like this Pacific Black Duck sometimes catch the light and sparkle with a range of blues, greens and purples.
Unlike the stork, the Glossy Ibis is well named with its feathers showing a range of greens, bronze and violet blues – this bird looks black from a distance or when the light is low.
Straw-necked Ibis occasionally visit my place and despite the low light in the photograph above it is still possible to see their iridescent glow.
The feathers of a peacock are incredibly beautiful and reflect various colours.
At the other end of the spectrum the Welcome Swallow has a gorgeous blue sheen when seen in the right light.
The previous images are ones that I took a while ago, this female Common Bronzewing is a shot I took at sunset on my recent trip to the Mallee. I loved seeing the golden bronze shimmer of her iridescent panels.
When the angle of light was different the panels appeared green, blue or purple.
The flash of gold was so bright but faded completely when she turned from the light.
The following morning I photographed this male Common Bronzewing. In this light his feathers, including the pinks and blues, looked far more spectacular than I’ve seen before.
I photographed this Emerald Dove on Lord Howe Island a few years ago, it’s feathers were an astoundingly bright mixture of pigment and iridescence.
Iridescent feathers are created by the micro-structure of the feathers and keratin which acts like a prism scattering colours of the rainbow. To see the colours light has to be shining on the feathers at specific angles, this can change depending on the angle of the sun, the position of the bird and of the viewer. When I was photographing the bronzewings they would often show no colour at all while at other times the golden flashes, in particular, were spectacular. Apparently these feathers do not shed water as easily as other feathers and require more preening but this extra effort seems to pay off as the bright feathers appear to relate to breeding success. So fascinating!
Regular readers will know that my vehicle broke down on my Mallee trip, despite having it serviced two weeks before I headed off. I picked it up yesterday, $4000 to replace the battery, the alternator and the EGR pump. A lovely lirralirra subscriber (thanks heaps Deirdre) kindly suggested that I started a gofundme, which I could never do. But she has inspired me to look into creating a calendar like I did in the early days. If I can find the kind of quality I’d like it would be large, A3, with beautifully printed images and from my research, would probably cost $40. I’m unsure how viable this would be so am wondering if any readers who would be interested could comment here or privately to kim @ lirralirra.com (without the spaces).
This screenshot shows a calendar I created a few years ago. I’m not sure how closely I’ll be able to match this but the January and February pages show what I’ll be aiming for.
Happy birding, Kim
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Yes please to the calendars.
That’s great Jess, I will send you an email later this evening 🙂
Hi, I’ve been trying to reply ‘yes, that’s fine’ to your email question but twice I’ve had a mail delivery failure notice despite checking your email address and using the reply button. I’m hoping you will see this message, Kim
Hi Kim,
I would love 1 or 2 calendars.
I love your posts.
Ann
Thanks so much Ann. I’ve been feeling daunted about finding the right set up, and worried that they seem expensive. Your message came at the perfect time to be encouraging, Kim
Thank you Kim. I can now enjoy all your beautiful photos.
That’s good Jennie, thanks for letting me know.
Woo Hoo and Happy dances. Thanks for your email I came back and was DELIGHTED to see all of the images and the comments section miraculously appear. I showed them to my partner and suggested his bird loving sister would like a calendar. He agreed. I would like two please – and remember the last one you did with extreme fondness.
Thanks for your email EC as one of the readers letting me know about the missing photographs! And many thanks for your calendar comments, I hope I can make it happen this year and I appreciate your encouragement
We are sorry about your car maintenance problems and know from personal experience disruptive and distressing this is. We’d be keen to purchase calendar/s and hope that you are able to offset some of the repair costs and keep photographing birds for our pleasure.
I’m sorry to hear that you understand from experience about car issues! Thank you heaps for your kind words and your interest in calendars
Hi Kim, I’d take a couple of calendars and maybe another if they are ready in time for Christmas or New Year
Thank you Mark. I would definitely be planning to have them ready in time for Christmas/New Year
It could just be me but about half the photos aren’t appearing. It has not happened before. Any thoughts? Any one else reported this issue? I’ve tried on both my phone and computer.
Thanks for letting me know Jennie, others had emailed me about it too and thanks to you all I believe I have now fixed the issue. Please let me know if they are working for you now
Hello Kim,
I would be very happy to order a calendar if it all works for you and you’re happy with it.
Thanks for the joy drop every week and good luck with the finances.
Mary A
Heaps of thanks Mary. I’m busy speaking with other photographers about the best quality printing, I’m hopeful that I will be able to find something beautiful.
Definitely yes to a calendar. Make great gifts.
Many thanks Margot! x
Yes please to another calendar!! I got the one from ’16 and gave one to my mother in law for Xmas that year.
That’s great Tess, thanks so much
Thanks to everyone who let me know that the comments weren’t working (for some strange reason) – it was lovely to get your emails about calendars, big thank yous for that too, Kim
And my thanks also to everyone who mentioned that not all of the images were visible – I have fixed that now, I hope!