This was a new bird to me, so I looked it up: it’s a Western Tanager.
He’s in full mating plumage with a bright red head. “In non-breeding plumage, the head has no more than a reddish cast and the body has an olive tinge.” He doesn’t synthesize that red color; it comes from his diet. “The red pigment in the face of the Western Tanager is rhodoxanthin, a pigment rare in birds. It is not manufactured by the bird, as are the pigments used by the other red tanagers. Instead, it must be acquired from the diet, presumably from insects that themselves acquire the pigment from plants.”
Meanwhile, the new directive for ADHD is to remove all additives and artificial colorants from the diet as a first step… so when I look at this bird who makes his head red in the spring by eating the right bugs, I can’t help but wonder what he could do with a box of strawberry jello.
Recent Comments