The Bluebird

It was the well-known author, Henry David Thoreau who, in 1852, described the bluebird saying, “The bluebird carries the sky on his back.” Fifty years later, a man by the name of John Burroughs, himself a naturalist and author like Thoreau, added his poetic thought to Thoreaus sentiment, saying, “and the earth on its chest.”

The bluebird with "the sky on his back and the earth on his chest," is a beautiful sight to see! I have had a few make their homes in my year over the years and they do make one happy. Not only is it enlightening to see such a pretty blue color on a little bird as if flits through the sky, but my understanding is that long before the use of modern pesticides it made one happy to know they were around because they do indeed rid farm and garden of pesky, pesty, bugs! It's the "Bluebird of Happiness" they say."

You might be old enough, to remember, Walt Disney's Song of the South, (1946) where good ol’ Uncle Remus, sang, “ZIP-A-DEE-DO-DA,” while an animated bluebird danced upon his shoulder and twittered about the big screen, delighting him and audiences with it’s presence, but the idea of the Bluebird of Happiness didn't originate with Disney; it was Maurice Maeterlink, author of the1909 play, The Bluebird, that is credited with coining the phrase.

It might surprise you to know that the blue feathers of these beautiful, iridescently blue-colored birds, (like all other birds that have blue feathers,) are not really “blue” at all.

Apparently, the colors in cells of living things are usually formed by something called pigments, (material that absorbs certain colors of light and reflects other colors) and this is true of birds and feathers, however there are no “blue” pigments in bird feathers. The blue colors we see in birds are produced solely by the play of light upon the feather’s structure. In fact, bluebirds, when they are not in direct light, show their true pigmented color, which is not blue at all, it is either gray or brown which is why their undersides, in the shadow of the sun, is brown like the earth, as Burroughs noted.

Ornithologists, (people that study birds,) will tell you, feathers are very complex structures. They are an incredible and intricate example of design. I will tell you, this is God's design. You see, it's rather obvious upon examination that even an individual feather is and a remarkable things let alone a whole wingful when they lay collectively against one another to support a bird in flight. Engineers, that is, people who do the math to make a jet fly, will tell you, birds and their feathers are no accidental thing, for they are perfectly formed, (or is it, engineered?) for flight.

In addition to this incredible design factor birds have in their feathery wings, their feathers also have the remarkable ability to insulate birds from water and cold, a very important feature for a creature that must live outdoors. Their feather colors are notable too, because the colors of the feathers have the amazing mechanisms necessary to help the bird attract an appropriate mate, as well as provide the appropriate camouflage for each individual type of bird, all dependent on it's surroundings. The reality is that each and every feather on a bird, even those who do not fly, is important for their overall survival and the survival of their kind.

IIt’s important to take note that birds, do not act like airplanes, nor do they “have wings that are curved like the wing of an airplane. It’s the other way around, and it should be obvious that it is the detailed study of birds in flight that has made it possible for man to create machines that fly like birds. As we have observed soaring eagles, diving hawks, swooping owls and maneuvering swifts and swallows we have found the inspiration to build the very aircraft that we see and use today. Birds, no matter how foul they are, are amazing. They are nothing like the machines we build in which to fly, they are living creatures born with feathers and wings.


The scientific study of birds in flight has revealed to us that the wing of bird consists of tightly fitting, lightweight, air-trapping feathers. The individual feathers apparently “zip” into connection, into formation the others by means tiny barbs that connect with other barbs on other feathers and this is what forms the surface of the wing. This wing is then used to catch air and fly. This is amazing, but the amazement does not stop there. Individually, each bird feather has it’s own intricate internal structure, but if you look even closer, taking a microscopic view of a pigmentless blue feather, it is even more amazing.


A man by the name of Steve Hunt, writing for Discovery Science, quotes Dr. Richard Prum of the Natural History Museum of Kansas as he reported his findings in the November 5, 1998 edition of the Journal, Nature. According to Hunt, Prum describes the amazing blue-feather structures as “minuscule,” “seemingly random,” and “air-bubble-like.” Then he says that while they look like random air bubbles, “they are actually highly ordered, and ordered at just the right size and spatial scale to produce the blue colors of the feathers by a property called constructive interference."

Interesting, isn’t it. They are seemingly random, bubble-like structures, but only until someone with eyes to see more carefully studies them. Careful observation and understanding of what is being seen, suddenly becomes "highly ordered."

Prum observed that that these structures amazingly scattered the light that hit these structures in such a way as to canceled some of the colors of the light spectrum out. He noted that all of it was specifically canceled out except for the blue, which he says are selectively amplified by the way the tiny cells are in a particular formation.

He was amazed. It’s remarkable to even think about.

This process is what allows our eyes to see blue on the bluebird and in fact, on all feathers that are blue. None of the feather on any bird is blue due to pigmentation, it's all a play of light. What you see as blue is is dependent upon light shining on them, and your eyes reception of that light. We even see blue color on their feathers from any direction, even the bottom of the bird, just as long as there is light

I find it somewhat ironic that the so-called “bird of happiness” is “blue,” after all, when people talk about feeling “blue” it usually means that they are pensive, sad or depressed, not happy. People talk about getting “the blues,” meaning that they are feeling moody or melancholy, or they “sing the blues” when they are in low-spirited state of mind, in sorrow, or emotional distress and suffering. It's an enigma to me why this is the case.

"Why does a "blue" bird represent “happiness?” I wondered. I believe it is because the color blue has had different connotations besides sadness throughout human history.

The color blue has it’s own history. It is an esteemed color, thought of as being a color of high prestige and royal value. It has been known to represent qualities such as tranquillity, loyalty, will-power, self-control, honesty, stability, unity, conservatism, morality, supremacy, and sacredness. In fact, the color blue has special meanings for people all over the world in varied cultures.

For example, in ancient China, where there was no “word” for the color blue, there was no difference between the color blue and the color green. These were considered one color, or rather, one color with two parts and they both represented “life.” In Egypt, blue is good luck and the sacred “good luck” baboon, called Baba, (associated with Thoth, the magician god of the pyramids and underworld) is often depicted as blue. In India, Lord Vishnu as Krishna, (also called “the dark One” in eastern religions) is said to have blue blood, and to show his supremacy as a god and aristocracy, he is pictured with blue skin. In ancient Spain or France, for a person to have “blue blood” meant that they were of noble or royal lineage. In the United States, “blue laws,” (instituted by “bluenoses”) were enacted to ensure the maintenance of the high standards of God’s moral law among men. If someone were to tell you that you are "true blue," that would be a compliment. They are telling you that you are royal, moral, highly spiritual and faithful.

Here is a spiritual thought for the reader.

People like to be thought of as “blue,” I mean they often strive to do things well and be be on their best behavior, but unfortunately we is like the bluebird, not “true blue” at all. Brown and drab in true cellular structure, we, like the bluebird who can only ever be blue when in the sun’s radiant light, can only be truly "blue" when we are in the radiant light of God.


John 3:19-21
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.


1 Corinthians, 4:4-7
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.