We've had a new visitor to our backyard bird feeders during the last few weeks - a Painted Bunting.
We'd spotted one only once before, 3 years ago after a storm - he'd probably been blown of course on the wind. This one, though, must have set up camp somewhere nearby because he's been visiting us several times a day.
Isn't he gorgeous?
A thought came to me as I watched him yesterday: wouldn't it be fun if we humans carried our astrological color patterns, for all to see, as the Painted Bunting carries his colors? That'd make life even more interesting. There'd be university courses and a gazillion books, teaching students how to recognise the various astrological strands and patterns in our colors.
A bit of trivia - The Painting Bunting's Latin name, used by ornithologists, is Passerina Ciris. The Greek myth of Scylla who turned into the bird keiris, inspired the name Ciris.
The Scylla referred to isn't the mythological female sea monster of the same name, but the daughter of Nīsus, king of Megara, which was besieged by Minos of Crete. Nisus was inviolable and the city safe as long as a red or purple lock among his white hair remained intact. Scylla cut it off and thus killed him in order to deliver the city to the besiegers, either out of love for Minos or because she had been bribed. Minos was horrified at the deed and drowned her (or she drowned herself). Nisus was turned into an osprey and Scylla into a sea-bird (ciris), ever pursued with hatred by her father. (See here)
(Photograph taken by my husband).
We'd spotted one only once before, 3 years ago after a storm - he'd probably been blown of course on the wind. This one, though, must have set up camp somewhere nearby because he's been visiting us several times a day.
Isn't he gorgeous?
A thought came to me as I watched him yesterday: wouldn't it be fun if we humans carried our astrological color patterns, for all to see, as the Painted Bunting carries his colors? That'd make life even more interesting. There'd be university courses and a gazillion books, teaching students how to recognise the various astrological strands and patterns in our colors.
A bit of trivia - The Painting Bunting's Latin name, used by ornithologists, is Passerina Ciris. The Greek myth of Scylla who turned into the bird keiris, inspired the name Ciris.
The Scylla referred to isn't the mythological female sea monster of the same name, but the daughter of Nīsus, king of Megara, which was besieged by Minos of Crete. Nisus was inviolable and the city safe as long as a red or purple lock among his white hair remained intact. Scylla cut it off and thus killed him in order to deliver the city to the besiegers, either out of love for Minos or because she had been bribed. Minos was horrified at the deed and drowned her (or she drowned herself). Nisus was turned into an osprey and Scylla into a sea-bird (ciris), ever pursued with hatred by her father. (See here)
(Photograph taken by my husband).
