BirdNote; Green Birds on St. Patrick's Day

BirdNote®

Green Birds on St. Patrick’s Day

Adapted from a script by Frances Wood

This is BirdNote!

[A few strains of Irish music “I’ll Tell Me Ma”]

You’d think that with so much green in nature, many birds would be a’wearin’ the green for camouflage. Not just on St. Patrick’s Day, but every day. Yet very few of our birds cavort in Irish green. There be some wee exceptions, however — some of the hummingbirds, with their backs of bright green.

[Whirring wings of the Anna’s Hummingbird]

This tiny Anna’s Hummingbird is a bird of the West.

[Song of Anna’s Hummingbird]

When sunlight catches its throat and head-feathers, an iridescent flash of rosy-red gleams from this green bird.

[Call of Black-chinned Hummingbird]

This one may be called the Black-chinned Hummingbird, but the surprise is the flash of iridescent purple when the sun strikes its chin just right. This green bird summers from the Rocky Mountains to the dry Southwestern deserts.

[Flying sounds of Ruby-throated Hummingbird]

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird covers the eastern part of the country, the green male flashing its brilliant red throat as it hovers for a moment in the sun.

Unless you’re in one of the Great Plains states, one of these hummingbirds is probably coming your way soon. Watch for that flash of glittering green.

[Whirring of Anna’s Hummingbirds wings]

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Bird sounds provided by Naturesound.org and The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Song of the Anna’s Hummingbird recorded by E.A. Traner; Anna’s Hummingbird wings recorded by A.A. Allen; Call of Black-chinned Hummingbird by R.B. Angstad/W.W.H. Gunn

Wings and chatter of Ruby-throated Hummingbird recorded by Martyn Stewart Naturesound.com

Music: “I’ll Tell Me Ma,” from Irish Heartbeat, Van Morrison and the Chieftains, PolyGram Records, Caledonia Productions, Ltd.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org March 2017/2020 Narrator: Mary McCann

ID # old: 031705ANHUKPLU stpatty-02

Baltosser, William H. and Stephen M. Russell. 2000. Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/495

doi:10.2173/bna.495