January 2013

When we were last with the intrepid students sent abroad to the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, our fearless leader had just successfully wrangled the group into and out of the Angostura Rum Factory (the tale of said adventure can be found here). This short, picture filled post will highlight just one of the many fantastic sights that were seen the rest of that eventful day at the Pointe-a-Pierre Wild Fowl Trust.

Peacocks (the common name for the male Indian Peafowl, but who cares) are fantastically famous. Why? Because they’re blue. Blue, and they like showing it off.

Not sad blue, obviously, but the best color in nature, in my opinion. I’ve discussed my love for blue previously, but blue in birds is especially unique. Unlike blueberries and other plants whose colors are derived from chemical pigments, the blue in feathers, both iridescent and flat, come from physics. Without getting too technical, mostly because I only half understand this magic, the light that hits a feather on a peacock strikes a barb (a feather shard, basically), bounces around a bunch in little air pockets of particular shapes, cancels out the other colors in the light spectrum, and reflects only the blue wavelengths of light out to your eye.

Cool, no? It’s a pretty little mirage that plays merry hob with your senses to create BLUE, in every sense of the word. For more information, Cornell has a nice easy thing to read here, and Yale has a less easy thing to read (but it’s got pictures) here.

I could say something about the mating implications of the beautiful plumage seen in these pictures, but I’m not going to. These particular individuals were not wild, they weren’t being bred to be released or to increase populations, they were mostly just there to hang out and be charismatic megafauna. Regardless of the reason for the display and for the color, I had a great time taking a ton of pictures. So now, I’ll shut up, and put up the rest of the images. Enjoy!