A Blue Like No Other: Robin’s Egg Blue

A Blue Like No Other, photo by sl33stak.

Wikipedia’s American Robin entry (that’s Turdus migratorius for all the 3rd graders out there) says:

The American Robin begins to breed shortly after returning to its summer range. It is one of the first North American bird species to lay eggs, and normally has two to three broods per breeding season, which lasts from April to July.

The nest is most commonly located 1.5–4.5 meters (5–15 ft) above the ground in a dense bush or in a fork between two tree branches, and is built by the female alone. The outer foundation consists of long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers. This is lined with smeared mud and cushioned with fine grass or other soft materials. A new nest is built for each brood, and in northern areas the first clutch is usually placed in an evergreen tree or shrub while later broods are placed in deciduous trees. The American Robin does not shy away from nesting close to human habitation.

A clutch consists of three to five light blue eggs, and is incubated by the female alone. The eggs hatch after 14 days, and chicks leave the nest a further two weeks later. All chicks in the brood leave the nest within two days of each other.

The cool blog ColorBuzz has a cool post about Robin’s Egg Blue that has a number of cool tidbits about this unique shade of blue such as the reason that a robin’s egg is blue is to hide it from color blind mammals and that Tiffany has trademarked the hue.

In case you’re itching for a fight with Tiffany and wondering how to make it, in hex code it’s #00CCCC or 0, 204, 204 in RGB. You might just want to buy the crayon.

You can view this larger in Jamie’s Nature slideshow (or check out the set).