Spring means Color

Male birds put on their breeding plumage and begin singing, claiming territory and attracting mates. In the park, the goldfinch is back (a goldfinch, anyway), his scruffy winter plumage all bright and shiny, so loud and so tiny. Redwing blackbirds, their shoulder patches blazing, congregrate and scuffle - five males ranging over territory one, or maybe two, of them will hold over the summer. And the females come... Cardinals shed their winter gray and flame-red whistle from the branches. Robins, looking much the same as they always do, go berserk, chasing each other, and even chasing mockingbirds, which those gray devils must find a new and strange experience. Grackles also gather and begin pairing off. Finches and song sparrows give it their all, too. Even the geese split off from their flocks... New life, celebrated in new song.