mikeb@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Mike Burger) (09/15/89)
A few years ago we had an attack of bizzare Zebra Doves. They were seen all over campus with red heads, green wings, orange tails, blue bodies and other gaudy modifications in various combinations. Turned out to be a breeding study. The Zebra Doves court all the time they are not eating. Apparently some student had captured a number of the birds and used dyes to modify their drab colors to see how their mating success was affected. I remember one particular Zebra Dove with bright green wings, a red head and blue tail that spent a lot of time wandering around looking very, very confused and put upon. We also have bizzare house finches, but their variable colors, ranging from deep purple to bright canary yellow is due to their changing diet of berries and fruits. They extract and store colored biochemicals from their food in their feathers, thus changing the color of patches of their plumage. I was having a terrible time identifying a pair of birds on my lanai that looked like a cross between a sparrow and a canary until a local bird expert explained that was just a house finch and the color shown in the bird books could not be relied on, especially in Hawaii. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mike Burger, Chemistry, 2545 The Mall | University of Hawaii | BITNET: MIKEB@UHCCUX.bitnet | Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822 | INTERNET: mike@helium.chem.hawaii.edu Phone: (808) 948-7503