{"id":30094,"date":"2021-02-16T17:42:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T01:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=30094"},"modified":"2021-02-16T20:12:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T04:12:59","slug":"white-eyelid-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=30094","title":{"rendered":"White-eyelid mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dipper \u2013 the eyelid flashes white when it blinks! This is so different from any other bird that it begs for an explanation.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 David Sybley<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A dipper has both a dark plumage and dark eyes. Why would it have evolved a white (feathered) eyelid? David Sybley is an authoritative author on birds who knows the literature, and yet he is unable to offer an explanation. Further, up until this morning, I would have accepted his aside that the dipper’s white eyelid was different from any other (dark) bird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However this morning, I saw another bird with a dark head and dark eyes that sported a white eyelid. That second bird was a Black-billed Magpie. Both the dipper and the magpie are somewhat uncommon locally, yet, if you know where to look, they can be found.<\/p>\n

When watching a dipper, I often see it flash its white eyelid. Until this morning, I had neither seen, nor suspected, that a magpie could do so also. The sight was so unexpected that I sought confirmation. I found no images of the magpie’s white eyelid on the web, but on the Cornell website<\/a>, I read about the Black-billed Magpie:<\/p>\n

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In groups, males establish dominance … flashing their white eyelids.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, the magpie I saw was on its own, and so was not seeking dominance. However, the text did acknowledge the magpie’s white eyelid.<\/p>\n

So, for what purpose has the white eyelid evolved? The mystery deepens.<\/p>\n

A dipper blinks and displays its white feathered eyelid.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

This morning’s shot of a magpie displaying its white eyelid.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Dipper \u2013 the eyelid flashes white when it blinks! This is so different from any other bird that it begs for an explanation. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 David Sybley A dipper has both a dark plumage and dark eyes. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30094"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30106,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30094\/revisions\/30106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}