No photograph could capture this color. What is so remarkable about the presence of these birds is the fact that they are not nesting in bluebird houses. There are many old trees here and these birds make their homes in abandoned woodpecker holes. There is one nesting now in the pine grove. But bluebirds are only one of the blue species.
Indigo buntings sing their doubled phrases from the poplars across the hay field.
Their blue is metallic and in indirect light they often appear dark gray or even black. Common in the South, these birds are abundant on the Niagara Frontier as well but few people notice them. Once you know their song, however, you can locate them feeding in the treetops. And those omnipresent blue jays are regularly heard, often seen flying but only occasionally to be noticed quietly skulking in the undergrowth. Three swallows that dash through the air lanes over the yard show various shades of blue, the tree swallow a greenish blue, the barn swallow a grayer shade and the purple martin a deep violet.