Birds can be wonderfully colorful. Here are some prime examples.

Two Black-rumped Flamebacks with their distinct red crown and crest.

A Blue-throated Barbet – the blue looks even better due to the contrast with the red on the top of the bird’s head.

A male Bluethroat, though in this case the throat itself is red or ochre rather than blue, but compensated by a beautiful light blue around the throat patch.

A Fairy Pitta, well deserving its Chinese name as the “Eight-color Thrush”.

A Great Barbet, sporting a gorgeous combination of bluish and greenish tones combined with a bit of red and some black – all without looking tacky.

Two Green Bee-eaters, though the species name fails to mention the beautiful orange heads and the light blue parts under the black eye stripe.

Ms. Gould’s Sunbird looking indeed like a gorgeous sunset in yellow, orange and red.

Rainbow Lorikeets indeed do not seem to lack any colors of the rainbow.

A Red-tailed Minla, with the red also covering parts of its wing feathers.

A male Siberian Rubythroat with its fabulous light red throat.

A Silver-eared Mesia, with the silver ear being a much less attractive feature than the intense red and yellow of the rest of the bird.

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai Pflug has been living in Shanghai for 20 years. He only became interested in birds in China – so he is much more familiar with birds in China than with those in Germany. While he will only ever be an average birder, he aims to be a good bird photographer and has created a website with bird photos as proof. He hopes not too many clients of his consulting company read this blog, as they will doubt his dedication to providing consulting services related to China`s chemical industry. Whenever he wants to shock other birders, he tells them his (indoor) cats can distinguish several warblers by taste.