03 October 2011

This is a sunbittern

What a beautiful bird.  This from Wikipedia:
The Sunbittern, Eurypyga helias is a bittern-like bird of tropical regions of the Americas... The bird has a generally subdued coloration, with fine linear patterns of black, grey and brown. Its remiges however have vividly-colored middle webs, which with wings fully spread show bright eyespots in red, yellow, and black. These are shown to other sunbitterns in courtship and threat displays, or used to startle potential predators. Like some other birds, the Sunbittern has powder down.
Both remiges and powder down were new to me.


Photo credit Wes Kalinowski, via chirp chirp chirp and A London Salmagundi.

3 comments:

  1. Almost looks like some of the Southwestern Native American designs, especially on the wings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That was my first flash reaction too. I wondered if it inspired some Aztec/Maya designs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Both new terms to me as well. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...