How come everyone else's birds are more colourful than ours? I was idly flipping through a book about North American birds the other day, and that's what struck me. Lucky Americans get all manner of exotically-coloured birds frolicking in their gardens and nature reserves - try searching for pictures of Blackburnian warbler, northern cardinal or blue jay to see what I mean. Meanwhile, we get fobbed off with a multitude of rather dull, brown birds. It's not really fair, is it?As Kevin mentioned last week, it's been a good year for siskins in this neck of the woods, and this morning we saw a grand total of four on the peanut feeder right outside our window. As I watched them through binoculars, it dawned upon me that, actually, siskins are pretty good-looking birds! The males are a dazzling combination of daffodil-yellow breast, rump and delicately-striped wings, with lime-green back and smart black cap. Then I remembered that yesterday lunchtime, I'd spent a quiet few minutes sitting in the hide. Outside, munching their way through the niger seed, were two lesser redpolls. Redpolls' bodies may be brown and streaky, but now they're moulting into their breeding plumage, their heads carry a splash of bright blood-red and the males' breasts are washed a shade of raspberry.A little further away, a jay was hopping around the meadow. It's often hard to get a good look them, as they're rather shy and retiring. This one was bolder than the average jay and perched obligingly on a bare branch. I don't know why jays sport a patch of blue wing feathers, but they do, and it's a dazzling electric-blue. What purpose could it have, other than to impress other jays (and maybe, anyone else who happens to see it)?Finally, this lunchtime we were out and about, enjoying the springy sunshine. The sky was blue and the clouds fluffy, though the breeze could have done with being warmer. A green woodpecker rollercoasted through the air and latched onto the bark of a tree. Yep, another vividly-coloured bird - bright red cap, grass-green back and golden rump and tail. You can't beat it, really...