What Kind of Birds Lay Blue Eggs? The Complete Guide
Blue eggs are just one of many colors that you might encounter; birds eggs are as unique as the birds themselves.
White, tan, turquoise, teal, brick-red, and even pink are just a few of the colors that birds can lay their eggs in!
Even the surfaces’ coatings and textures vary. Eggs come in a variety of colors and textures, some of which are dull, while others are sparkly and others are lumpy.
Finally, you might even discover some eggs with blotches, flecks, and spots that rival those in a Jackson Pollock painting.
American Robin
The robin is among the most well-known species of birds that produce blue eggs. Robins can be found in both the United States and Europe. They both produce blue eggs. As for the American robin, it’s not unusual to see them all year long in the United States.
While some robins prefer to spend the winter in the south, others choose to remain near their eggs. Some also opt to migrate to the north to breed and then return to their particular locations after the breeding season is complete.
It’s a common belief that robins are some of the first birds you hear and see when you wake up.
Foraging for earthworms on lawns takes up a lot of their time. If you decide to watch a robin, you’ll probably see them hopping across the ground until they come across a worm.
They will immediately grab the worm out of the ground and consume it after hastily dipping their heads.
Dunnocks
The dunnock is a diminutive bird that inhabits the hedgerows, gardens, parks, and margins of wooded areas. It consumes seeds, worms, and small insects.
Despite the fact that males and females are lifelong partners, the female will mate with other men and lay up to five eggs at a time. Despite not belonging to the sparrow family, the dunnock is also known as a Hedge Sparrow.
House Finches
The brown tail of an adult House finch is rather long, with a square tip. They have wing feathers that are grey and a dullish brown color on their backs. Like their breasts and feathers, the flanks frequently have streaking.
In contrast to their brown upper parts, adult females have striped underparts. The house finch has a diet that is the most vegetarian of any bird in North America, with 97 percent of its calories coming from plants.
Gray Catbirds
Catbirds have a black crown and a blackish tail with a brown patch underneath, despite the fact that they appear to be entirely grey. They can be found throughout most of North America, but during the winter they move to Mexico and Central America.
Catbirds are able to make over a hundred distinct types of sounds, and they can sing for up to ten minutes at a time.
Black Tinamous
Large and incredibly uncommon black tinamous are discovered in the cloud forest on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Compared to the grey tinamou, it has a deeper and plainer hue. They are challenging to see in the wild because of their drab, brown underparts.
You are more likely to hear them than see them, like other forest tinamous. A low, drawn-out coo that sounds like a dove but is longer is also one of the vocalizations, as are a succession of low, modulated whistles.
Common Mynas
The common myna is another bird that lays blue eggs. Although it is endemic to South Asia, this bird has begun to spread to other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and even Hawaii.
However, it hasn’t made much progress in the US yet. The common myna does, however, produce blue eggs.
The American robin’s eggs are comparable to theirs in size, although their eggs might also tend toward a green hue.
Linnets
The linnet (Linaria cannabina), a diminutive passerine bird, is a member of the finch family. The flax plant, which yields linen, is known scientifically as Linaria because it enjoys eating hemp and flax seeds.
Blue Jays
The Blue Jay‘s blue colouring makes it no surprise that its eggs are blue. Although they frequently do, they don’t always only produce blue eggs. Their eggs occasionally could look more white or even green.
Both urban and suburban settings, as well as woodlands, are populated by blue jays. They frequently congregate in and around urban and suburban areas that have surrounding woodlands or, at the very least, large bird feeders.
They prefer to live on the borders of large forests away from urban and residential areas. In the center of a deep forest, though, you won’t see blue jays very frequently. In the forest’s periphery, they favor being.
Song Thrushes
The Palearctic region is home to the song thrush, Turdus philomelos, which is known by its scientific name. Its underparts might be buff or black-spotted, and its upperparts can be brown.
There are three subspecies of this species. A unique song, also referred to as poetry, is created by repeating melodic phrases.
Eastern Bluebirds
Eastern bluebirds are very prevalent in the summer and are frequently spotted in rural areas perched on telephone poles or wires. The head and back of a male Eastern Bluebird are a stunning royal blue, while their breast is a reddish-brown color.
Before returning to the south to build their nests and spend the rest of their lives, bluebirds breed in the northern regions of the United States.
For breeding purposes, some others also stay in the south. Eastern regions of the US are where bluebirds are primarily native. In fact, some of them reside in Mexico.
Bluebirds have a striking, vivid blue color on the tops of their bodies, as their name might imply. Also blue are their heads.
Similar to a robin’s chest, theirs is a deep, burned orange color. Their entire body is an eye-catching white color. An appealing bird for bird watchers to appreciate is created by the combination of various color tones. Moreover, their beaks are incredibly tiny.
Snowy Egrets
Medium-sized white herons called snowy egrets, have yellow lores and a black bill. Legs are black and feet are yellow on adults. Juveniles have yellowish-green legs and feet.
In contrast to the Great Egret, which moves quite slowly, Snowy Egret forages in the wetlands in a very active manner.
Unlike the cow egret, which prefers to stroll through fields, the white egret prefers to walk with its feet in the water. It has a broader bill than the cattle egret.
Foster Egg Parents
Even though they weren’t hatching from the same species of the egg as their foster parent species, birds tend to resemble them.
They carried an experiment out as part of a recent study to examine the impact of exposing birds to various bird species while they are young.
Hatchlings were transplanted across populations by the researchers, and it was found that the hatchlings grew up to resemble their foster parents.
What Does the Color of the Shell Say about the Bird?
The embryo can’t be inferred from the shell’s color alone. The health of the parent birds is mentioned in passing, though.
The embryo’s parents are highly healthy birds if the egg has a colorful egg shell, which is an indicator of such. The health of the bird that hatches from the egg may also be indicated by this.
If the color of the egg appears to be similar to that of the nest, indicating that the egg is camouflaged, it may indicate that the parent bird did not frequently visit the nest to guard the eggs. It may also indicate the presence of a brood parasite if eggs from the same hatch have varied hues.
How Do the Colors Protect the Eggs from the Sun?
The color can and can provide protection against the sun’s damaging rays, which can be very destructive to bird eggs. The egg may become damaged by the sun’s heat and radiation, which can also have an impact on the embryonic chick’s growth and incubation duration.
Higher mortality and a higher number of mutations occur when the sun’s heat shortens the incubation time and speeds up the growth of the chicks. While an egg with a light neutral hue may be more susceptible to overheating, UV radiation (ultraviolet) will have less of an impact on a dark egg.
The heat will impress. A darker-colored egg will bake in direct sunlight, whereas a lighter-colored egg is able to reflect part of that heat and stay cooler.
The geographical range of birds has a significant impact on the hue of their eggs. In general, birds that dwell in an open, exposed setting with more sunshine produce eggs that are lighter. Birds lay darker-colored eggs in locations that are hidden and that receive little sunlight.
They have gone through many generations of evolution to achieve the ideal compromise between the safest color and the optimum environment in which to deposit their eggs. Due to variations in their demography and preferred habitats, birds within the same genus may have somewhat varied colored eggs.
Time for Laying Eggs
When a bird will lay its eggs is influenced by a variety of circumstances. Birds typically lay their eggs in warmer months. In light of this, any moment between the start of spring and the conclusion of summer is conceivable.
We would like to reiterate that there is no assurance regarding the day on which the bird will lay its eggs. The timing depends heavily on variables like the type of bird, the weather, and height.
If you spend some time studying a bird, you might be able to acquire a decent notion of this period for a particular species.
Reasons Why these Birds Lay Blue Eggs
Biliverdin and protoporphyrin serve as the reproductive system’s two “ink cartridges” for female birds. These two chemicals are present in all birds, although not all species make use of them. However, those who do utilize it produce eggshells with stunning colors.
The chemical known as biliverdin is responsible for creating the blue and green pigment seen in eggshells. The egg turns bluer as biliverdin concentration increases.
The colorant protoporphyrin is responsible for the red or brown color of eggs as well as the obvious spots and specks on the eggshells.
In the final few hours of manufacture, these “inks” are added to the newly created shell. Interestingly, when a bird lays numerous eggs at once, the color of the eggs will change during the course of the laying cycle.
Although it appears as though they are losing their pigment, this is actually a sign that the mother bird is running low on calcium and other minerals.
Since the female provides 10% of the calcium in eggshells, she needs more calcium and nutrition while laying eggs. The eggs will have a range of color tones if she doesn’t get any.
Difference Between Blue Bird Eggs and Eggs of Regular Color
There aren’t many significant distinctions between blue and typical white eggs, despite the fact that blue eggs may appear fairly different from regular white eggs. The qualities aren’t actually affected by the color of the eggshells.
The pigments found on the body’s interior, as we have previously stated, are what give the eggshell its blue hue. In more detail, biliverdin is the pigment that gives blue hues to things.
In contrast to the larger eggs, which have a more muted shade of blue, the color is more vivid on the smaller eggs. There aren’t really any differences between these eggs aside from the shell color, in actuality.
Conclusion
Researchers are still looking for answers with greater specificity. Consider the possibilities for additional causes of the blue hues in bird eggs or the blotches and specks.
We could learn a lot more about this topic in the next ten years. The more we know about birds, their eggs, and the effects that the environment and natural selection have on them, the more we can do to protect our feathered companions.
CSN Team.