There'll be blue birds over . . .

It is often pointed out that very little of our food is blue -- blueberries being the obvious exception (and blueberries are not always blue).

There are a few outstanding blue wildflowers (Chicory -- sometimes called Blue Sailors -- is in bloom right now). However, blue (or, in some cases, purple) is a surprisingly common color in our local birds. We have our state bird, the Eastern Bluebird and the all-blue Mountain Bluebird turned up here as a vagrant a couple of years ago. And let's not forget the underrated Blue Jay. We also have the Great and Little Blue Herons, Belted Kingfisher (mostly blue on its back and head), the gorgeous all-blue Indigo Bunting, Tree and Barn Swallow (both blue-backed), Purple Martin, Black-throated Blue Warbler (seen only in migration), Cerulean Warbler (rare breeder out here), Northern Parula (quite blueish above; common migrant, occasional breeder). There is such a thing as a Blue Goose (although now considered just a variety of Snow Goose) and the Blue-winged Teal has a spot of blue on, yes, its wing. Some of the hawks and falcons have blue-gray wings (the fast accipiters are traditionally known as 'Blue Darters'). There is a Blue Grouse out west and a Purple Gallinule that occasionally wanders here from the south. In good plumage and in good light, the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher looks quite blue and the newest addition to our breeding avifauna is the very blue Blue Grosbeak.

In spite of the fact that the Blue Bird plays a major role in Chinese and European folklore ("The Blue Bird" was a play by the Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck), there are no bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover and never have been. The true Bluebirds are an exclusively American phenomenon and the only blue birds in Europe are the Blue Rock Thrush (which is a Mediterranean bird and nothing like what we think of as a bluebird) and the group of titmice that includes the Blue Tit and Azure Tit (the latter an Eastern European and Middle Eastern bird). The Eurasian Jay has only a patch of blue on its wings and nothing more in the way of blue. There is a Purple Heron in southern Europe and Africa but I don't think that bird was what the songwriters were thinking of when they wrote "The White Cliffs of Dover" in the darkest days of WWII.

Eric Salzman