July 2026 • Nebraskaland 45
Blue may be rare in nature, but when it shows up in
Nebraska's wildlife, it dazzles, often thanks to clever tricks
of light rather than pigment.
For example, the electric blue of a male indigo bunting
underneath the summer sun would make anyone pause.
But here's the wild part: Indigo buntings aren't blue. Their
feathers don't contain blue pigment at all. Instead, their
coloration comes from microscopic structures in their
feathers that bend and scatter light called structural
coloration. It's kind of like how bubbles or oil slicks can
shimmer with rainbow colors depending on how the
light hits them. Underneath, those feathers are actually
black or brown.
Even the bluegill sunfish, a common freshwater fish in
Nebraska lakes and ponds, shows off flashes of iridescent
blue, especially during spawning season. Males develop a
striking blue sheen along the gill covers and cheeks, along
with a deep orange belly, to signal dominance and attract
mates. In the water, that shimmer isn't just beautiful, it's
a status update, a territorial warning and a love song, all
rolled into one.
And then there's one of my favorite unexpected flashes
of blue in Nebraska — the blue mud dauber, a wasp. These
solitary wasps are harmless to humans as they rarely
sting, and they happen to be stunning little insects. Their
bodies shimmer with a metallic blue or blue-black sheen.
You'll often see them hovering near porches, sheds or
barns, searching for spiders to paralyze and stash in their
mud-built nests.
This brilliant blue comes from, you guessed it, structural
coloration. Just like birds and butterf lies, their shiny
appearance is due to the way their exoskeleton is built. It
reflects and refracts light to produce that vivid, iridescent
color. There's no blue pigment involved at all.
Brilliant Blues
ABOVE: Mud dauber. GETTY IMAGES
LEFT: An indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea) perches on a limb at
the Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Safari Park in Cass County.
JEFF KURRUS, NEBRASKALAND
A bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) is held by an angler at a farm
pond near Tekamah. JEFF KURRUS, NEBRASKALAND
