The local tit flock passed through the garden yesterday evening, so I tried to get a few shots off as they had bathed and looked reasonably comfortable (two or three even dozed off). When reviewing, I noticed that there were differences in eyelid colour. I thought that this might be an age / plumage variation but it seems that the colour variation is down to their mood, this conclusion has been reached by some scientists who summarised it like this...
Long-tailed Tits captured in mist-nets showed variations of eye-lid colour from pale yellow to deep red. Individual changes occurred within a few minutes, and were sufficient to account for a changing frequency of colour categories in the population during winter. Birds with redder eyelids..were heavier, and were more likely to make distress calls when handled. These results suggest that eye-lid colour reflects a bird's internal state or 'mood'.
Have a look for yourself. The link for the paper is at the bottom of the post.
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| Red Eyelid |
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| Yellow eyelid |
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