Magic Feather Trick

[Alwese]

I frequently take a bag of molted feathers with me when out and about with the birds in public, to hand them to children who are too terrified to have Kayko on their arm and to some as a reward for their bravery. A lot of adults who have macaws have never seen this, but if you take a B&G or Catalina feather that is blue the underside is yellow. If you hold the yellow side toward you and look toward the sun the yellow disappears and the feather looks grey. I tell the kids that this is how God hides them from the Harpy Eagles in the jungle (that's what was told to me, I don't know how true it is, but at least it is a neat thing you can do with the feathers)

 

[Kalidasa]

Blue mutes or even cancels yellow on the color spectrum, when I'm mixing hair color, I use a shot of blue pigment to cancel gold (yellow) tones which makes hair look brassy. Try holding the feather up on an overcast grey day and see if you get the same effect. . Gorgeous macaw btw!

 

[MonicaMc]

I find it interesting how B&G's, Scarlets, GW's, BTM's and some others have blue flights, however the underside is yellow or red (or orange in the case of some hybrids). This is clearly seen in a scarlet macaw that has been recently imped with the feathers from a B&G and some hybrids. (catalina and harlequin, I think).

Found a photo of a military macaw and 2 red macaws (supposedly scarlets, but look to be a scarlet and a greenwing)
Military Macaw with 2 Scarlet Macaws in pursuit | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Mommajack]

Alwese, that's an awesome idea, passing out feathers to kids like that.

 

[JerseyWendy]

I agree with Mommajack. AWESOME idea of handing out feathers to kids!