Yosemite Birds

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Adult Peregrine Falcon dives in a spectacular stoop pursuing prey in Yosemite Valley far below. Peregrines may soar over 2,000 feet above the ground and can spot prey up to a mile away. They fold back their wings and dive down at speeds over 200 miles per hour to capture unsuspecting prey birds in mid flight. Copyright, 2015.

$Steller's Jay perches on a rock and looks over my shoulder at the painting on which I worked depicting Upper Yosemite Fall. ©2012, James McGrew<br /> <br /> Members of the Corvidae, these birds also share some remarkable intelligence of their larger black colored relatives, crows and ravens. Steller's jays also exhibit beautiful plummage. However, the blue is not really pigment (a molecule that absorbs certain wavelengths and reflects other wavelengths). Instead the feathers refract blue wavelengths in certain directions. This is why you can pick up a blue feather and it appears blue in one direction but as you rotate the feather, it may change from brown to dark gray.$