Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Now, isn't that unusual?

Have you ever seen pelicans with blue feet and pouch?

A RARE SIGHT A blue-footed pelican

The featherless parts of a bird are its tibia, feet, bill, facial skin, iris, web and pouch. Nature paints these bare parts in different colours, denoting the age of the bird. The colour of a little egret's or night heron's feet changes from green (juvenile stage) to yellow (adult stage) to pink or orange (during the breeding stage). But Nature sometimes breaks its own rules and lends unusual bare-part colours to some birds.

Rare phenomenon

Right now, Nature is displaying its quirky side at the Nellapattu Pelicanry, about 90 km from Chennai. Bird photographer P. Ramanan's zoom lens captured a rare phenomenon during a recent visit to the pelicanry.

A group of about 10 grey pelicans stood out from the rest because of the colouring of their bare parts. Like almost all the other grey pelicans, the freaky ten were in breeding plumage.

But the colour of their legs and webbed feet were bluish — the regular colour shades between dark brown and black. Their slouching pouches were also bluish and had dark blotches — the regular colour is dull purple with irregular, bluish-black spots.

Although variation in bare-part colours is an aberration, it makes for variety and surprise - a melanistic night heron or a pond heron with pinkish feet may be an aberration, but they are a delightful sight, especially when spotted among their fellows in traditional colours.

A bird photographer with an eye for variants, Ramanan has photographed an albino kingfisher at the Bharatpur Sanctuary in Rajasthan. When twilight covers the land, this Albino bird looks as white as a ghost.

PRINCE FREDERICK

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail