Why are birds eggs different colors?
There was a time when nature lovers collected and displayed bird eggs, with the proper name and address of each species. Nowadays, thank goodness, we know that this is unfair to the bird world. The youth generation of nature lovers is dedicated to saving all our wild creatures from encroaching extinction. Besides, we enjoy them more when we observe them as friends, from a safe and polite distance. Modern ornithology students refuse to sacrifice precious bird eggs to build private collections for themselves. They prefer to admire true to life pictures in bird books and in nature films taken in the field. The obvious reason why bird eggs come in such a variety of plain and fancy colors seems to be camouflage. But as usual, in nature there are many exceptions that appear to disprove the general rule. Imagine a ruffled grouse, crouched on her earthy nest. Her brown speckled feathers match the fallen leaves on the ground and blend in with the dusky brown shadows of low hanging boughs. If sh
Bird study is a gentle hobby and full of pleasant surprises. Even a beginner learns that a kingfisher egg is snowy white and a buff colored killdeer egg is handsomely freckled with brown. A real expert can tell the dainty differences between eggs of the song sparrow and the field sparrow. A killdeer’s egg, of course, could never hatch into a kingfisher. The magic ingredient in the egg yolk contains a pattern inherited from countless killdeer ancestors. The pattern will be repeated and the egg will hatch into a killdeer chick. Other ancestral patterns also are inherited by the egg. It will be one and a half inches long and smothered with brown spots on a buffish background. Mr. and Mrs. Killdeer make their nest of pebbles on the ground. Their four eggs are placed nose to nose in the center and the ground around the nest is strewn with an assortment of buff and brownish blotched pebbles. If you walk by the nest, your eye is used to seeing a floor of mottled buff and brown stones and, cha
