I read recently that you can tell the general health of a male blackbird by the colour of his beak - apparently, the stronger his immune system, the yellow-er it is in appearance.
I think the three male blackbirds who currently live in our garden must be very healthy indeed, as they all have beaks that verge on neon orange. Given that spring is just around the corner, and they are all spending a lot of energy defining boundary lines (which mostly seems to consist of singing very loudly, and fighting each other on the lawn and in amongst the bushes), it's probably just as well...
My father had a cold the other week, and as he stood there wheezing and sneezing, looking decidedly wan, I suggested he should go to bed, adding that if he were a blackbird his beak would probably be a rather pale, dirty yellow. He agreed. How useful it would be, when it comes to looking after our health, if we all had colour-changing beaks!
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