Source: Bird Eggs 1

Length of Segment: 00:01:09

Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. At Easter, we often color eggs and decorate them with fanciful designs, but spring is also the season when nature provides an array of colors and patterns on the eggs of wild birds. In the late-1800s, kids and adults collected bird eggs just as people today collect beanie babies and baseball cards. Magazines provided opportunities for egg collectors to exchange and sell their eggs, and department stores sold cabinets for housing egg collections and special drills for removing the contents of eggs. Some wild birds declined as egg collecting became increasingly popular and by the early 20th century, the collecting of eggs, birds, or disturbing the nests of wild birds was made illegal. Take a quick peek at the sky blue of a bluebird’s eggs, the blue-green rust spotted eggs of the cardinal, or the elaborate squiggles and spots on pale-blue of a grackle's egg. But don't touch; oil from your fingers can plug the tiny pores in the shell that the growing bird inside needs for breathing. Perhaps someday they'll thank you with a song.

'With the Wild Things' is produced at the Whitaker Center in the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University. For 'The Wild Things', I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson.



< Back to Bird Eggs