WELCOME TO AN ENTERTAINMENT SITE FOR SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCERS!
Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Jun 23
Pink Flamingo Day
The Rare Bird
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds."
~Aesop c. 620–564 BCE
Are you an independent thinker? A bit of an eccentric? A "rare bird"? If so, you're in excellent dancing company. Some birds are celebrated for their dazzling plumage, others for their rarity, and a few for the almost legendary status they've earned over time.
Take the pink flamingo, for example. Flamingos aren't born pink at all—they begin life in soft shades of grey and gradually acquire their famous orange-pink coloring from pigments found in their diet, particularly brine shrimp. Other rosy-hued birds come by their colors naturally, without any dietary assistance, including the striking rose-pink Southern Carmine Bee-Eater and the Himalayan White-Browed Rose Finch.
Perhaps your connection to our feathered friends comes through your name. John Drewry's lovely strathspey "The Rare Bird" was inscribed for a dancer, Avis, whose name comes from the Latin word for "bird." The dance itself seems perfectly suited to its title. Beginning with a special crossover figure reminiscent of The Glasgow Highlanders, it features graceful Petronellas in tandem, flowing set and links up and down the set, and elegant movements that seem to keep the dancers aloft and on the wing.
Bird-inspired names have long been popular, including:
🐦 Women's Names
• Wren – the tiny, energetic songbird
• Robin – friendly and familiar
• Raven – intelligent, striking, and a little mysterious
• Paloma – Spanish for "dove"
• Phoebe – also the name of a small songbird
• Lark – cheerful and musical
• Branwen – Welsh; "blessed raven"
• Aderyn – Welsh; "bird"
• Mavis – an old name for the song thrush
• Avis – Latin for "bird"
🐦 Men's Names
• Callum – Scottish Gaelic; "dove"
• Jonah – Hebrew; "dove"
• Bran – Welsh; "raven"
• Corbin – derived from a word meaning "raven"
• Robin – a traditional male name as well as a bird name
• Jay – named for the colorful jay
• Phoenix – the legendary bird of rebirth
• Colm – Irish; "dove"
• Merle – French; "blackbird"
• Columba – Latin; "dove"
Alas, not all rare birds remain with us. Among those lost to history are the Mysterious Starling, Least Vermilion Flycatcher, Arabian Ostrich, Great Auk, Laughing Owl, Passenger Pigeon, and, of course, the famous Dodo.
Take care and stay rare, Dancers! 🕺 💃 💗 💗 💗 🐦 🦉 🦆 🦩 🦩 🦩
The Rare Bird
On today, Flamingo Day, we take note of flamingos and other rare pink birds, including the Roseate Spoonbill, Roseate finch, and Pink Robin amongst other rare birds.
Bird plumage colors are a result of several factors, including either pigment or from the light reflecting off feathers. For example, bluebirds, indigo buntings and blue jays are not really blue. The color we see is the light reflecting off their brown feathers. Fortunately for the birds, some predators do not see the same bright-blue reflections as we do. So they remain protected.
Similarly, the bright red of the male cardinal may serve to attract mates but may render the bird less visible to some predators.
Nature has given birds their unique colorations for different reasons: strength, protection from ultraviolet light and environmental stresses, camouflage, and the ability to entice the best mates to insure survival of the species.
Regardless, along with insects and coral reef fish, they provide some of the most brilliant color displays of life on earth.
For more on some of the world's formerly rare birds, alas lost to extinction, click another rare pink bird, the pink spoonbill, in a photo by Steve Blandin.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
