New Zealand is definiately temperate, and has a lot of green birds; all the parrot species; keas, kakas, kakarikis and kakapos (say that four times fast), as well as a pretty impressive selection of others, with at least patches in all shades of green (bellbirds, riflemen, takahe…).
In fact, I’d say green was one of the commoner colours in New Zealand’s birdlife.
They’re only green in certain lights, and even that’s only, in my experience, as green as a rooster’s greenish tailfeathers. They’re definitely not green like a lorikeet.
Okay, but they look green to me. Describe the color you see, do they appear blue, black, or some other color? I’m curious because my sister asked last week “Why are they called Green herons?” while observing the bird no more than 3 feet from her face. (I answered “That’s his last name.” because I thought she was pulling my leg.)
They appear a very dark blue to me, and that’s only the crown. The rest of the back of the bird looks kind of blackish-gray to me.
How odd, the difference in how we perceive color. Blue jays, eastern bluebird, indigo buntings, and blue grosbeaks are the blue birds I see all summer. The green heron is still just green to me, live and in photos. Green as the deep swamp they wade around.
I don’t pick up blue too well, and they look kind of gray to me. Usually the green would stand out to me. That’s based on the link from Finagle.
Green Herons are definitely greenish on the back, but it’s a very dark, oily, blackish green. They used to be called “Little Green Herons,” and the joke was because they had so little green on them.
Even so, this isn’t really the kind of bright green that is found in many tropical birds. Most greenish birds in temperate North America are dull olive green rather than bright green like vireos and the Black-throated Green Warbler.
As for the reason, all I can say is “beats me.” Probably the fact that browns are better camouflage in deciduous forest has something to do with it. However, this doesn’t explain the lack of bright green in migrant species. Bright green is more prevalent in certain families, such as parrots and hummingbirds, and these are more common in tropical and subtropical climates.
They also was once called “green-back herons” after they were called green herons, and now, once again green herons. Little green herons must have been before my time.
