Dear Grackle,
I want to choose a fun new hair color, but I'm stuck between green, blue and purple. I can't help but be jealous of how your feathers shine with those colors and more, all at the same time. Could you share the secret to your iridescence? Is it a sheen of oil from all the time you spend in parking lots?
Sincerely,
Green, blue and purple with envy
Dear Fan,
I wish I could help you here, but our flashy iridescence is a bird thing - yet another reason grackles are more fabulous than people! Male grackles' multicolored sheen is due to a molecule called melanin, which humans have too. In matte female grackles, the melanin is densely packed into each feather barbule (the tiny strands of keratin that make up the feather). For iridescent male grackles, the melanin is arranged in ordered layers on the edges of each barbule. When light hits the different layers, it's scattered into multiple wavelengths, producing the multicolored effect you see as we strut the parking lots. Good luck asking your human hairstylist to organize your hair's melanin!
Yours,
Grackle
Have a question for the grackle? Email us at magazine@tpwd.texas.gov and we will pass it along to our avian adviser. The grackle's opinions are its own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
