Black headed Gull

Volcucella zonaria?

Eyelid colour in Long-tailed Tit

The local tit flock passed through the garden yesterday evening, so I tried to get a few shots off as they had bathed and looked reasonably comfortable (two or three even dozed off).  When reviewing, I noticed that there were differences in eyelid colour.  I thought that this might be an age / plumage variation but it seems that the colour variation is down to their mood, this conclusion has been reached by some scientists who summarised it like this...

Long-tailed Tits captured in mist-nets showed variations of eye-lid colour from pale yellow to deep red. Individual changes occurred within a few minutes, and were sufficient to account for a changing frequency of colour categories in the population during winter. Birds with redder eyelids..were heavier, and were more likely to make distress calls when handled. These results suggest that eye-lid colour reflects a bird's internal state or 'mood'.

Have a look for yourself.   The link for the paper is at the bottom of the post.

Red Eyelid



Yellow eyelid

 Here is the research...

steamboat with gulls

Scroby