Birds can be wonderfully colorful. Here are some prime examples.

Two Black-rumped Flamebacks with their distinct red crown and crest.

A Blue-throated Barbet – the blue looks even better due to the contrast with the red on the top of the bird’s head.

A male Bluethroat, though in this case the throat itself is red or ochre rather than blue, but compensated by a beautiful light blue around the throat patch.

A Fairy Pitta, well deserving its Chinese name as the “Eight-color Thrush”.

A Great Barbet, sporting a gorgeous combination of bluish and greenish tones combined with a bit of red and some black – all without looking tacky.

Two Green Bee-eaters, though the species name fails to mention the beautiful orange heads and the light blue parts under the black eye stripe.

Ms. Gould’s Sunbird looking indeed like a gorgeous sunset in yellow, orange and red.

Rainbow Lorikeets indeed do not seem to lack any colors of the rainbow.

A Red-tailed Minla, with the red also covering parts of its wing feathers.

A male Siberian Rubythroat with its fabulous light red throat.

A Silver-eared Mesia, with the silver ear being a much less attractive feature than the intense red and yellow of the rest of the bird.

 

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 21 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well.He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.