This is Bird Note.

Peer into the world of birds,

and eyes of many different colors peer back.

There are shades of light and dark,

yellows, whites, greens,

the red eyes of certain hawks,

ducks, loons, herons and songbirds.

These colors really pop

because birds have no white around the iris

like we do.

So the yellow eyes of a great horned owl

or a herring gull

seem to give the birds a fierce penetrating glare.

While eye color isn't tied to one group of birds

or another,

a pattern common to many birds

is a change in eye color

as immature birds grow to adulthood.

Bald eagles, ring-billed gulls,

ducks such as golden-eyed scalp

have brown eyes as youngsters

and yellow as adults.

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