Nature's Best Colors

Flash of vivid red, black beak

Tufted head tilts, gives side-eye

Selects a seed,

Stays nearby to guard the female

As she eats.

Her gentle browns protect her from notice

As her flamboyant mate catches all eyes. She has a

Brilliant red-orange beak,

And ends of feathers

touched with red.

Blue and brash, tail at rest

Forms mosaic checkerboard,

Black, white and blue.

Handsome devil,

Loud and raucous.

Not afraid of

Black, black crows.

Male or female,

Blueness pleases us.

Great blue heron, mallard ducks,

Red-headed woodpeckers,

Mourning doves,

Black and white loons,

Pink flamingoes, tiny hummingbirds

Like metallic gems.

Chickadee with tidy grays,

Seagull screeching when water’s near,

Long-legged shore birds

Chase white capped waves.

Brilliant parrots

Decorate green overhead

With primary colors

And intelligent eyes.

Picture them gone

No colors flash

No thrill of flight,

No vees of honking geese.

At the corners of our eyes

Nothing moves, flits or flies.

No coloratura of morning calls,

No peeps to fledglings reassure.

Silence only everywhere.

The world of birds is full of

Colors that signal earth still

Lives.

Three billion gone missing though,

Will we end up deprived –

In a dying,

Colorless world,

Without any birds?