bluer blues

[mistenle]

Maybe this is the new fashion:

Pigeons left feeling blue
Clarissa Satchell


One of the blue pigeonsIT'S enough to get birdspotters reaching for their binoculars - a flock of blue pigeons.

But these birds of a very particular feather are not all that they seem.

They've been nesting inside a factory in Collyhurst, Manchester, which makes blue dye for printer cartridges and photocopiers and have come into contact with brightly-coloured powder used in dying process.


The result is that they've turned a nice hue of blue.

Diane Ryan was on her way home from work at a sheltered housing scheme close to the factory when she came across Manchester's lesser-spotted blue pigeon.

Diane, 45, from Clayton, said: "I just saw these blue pigeons on a patch of ground outside this big Victorian mill.

"When I first saw them I couldn't believe it, there were about four or five of them and since then I've seen quite a few more.

"My first thought was that it was a pigeon fancier who had put something in their feed to mark them out from the other pigeons.

Powder

"Then I looked up at the mill and the side of it is covered in blue dye.

"I realised that the pigeons must have been nesting in the building and had been dyed blue."

John Edwards, general manager of the firm Degussa which runs the factory, said: "It's quite possible that they have come into contact with the dye.

"I haven't seen any blue pigeons myself but I wouldn't be at all surprised. We contain the powder inside the plant so they would have had to pick it up inside."

The company produces blue pigments, mainly for office equipment, but the fine powder dye is used for a wide variety of purposes - even to colour Italian police cars.

Its chemical name is sodium ferrocyanide - but Mr Edwards said he did not believe it posed a threat to the birds.

"It has a very low toxicity and it is a low-hazard product. I don't think it would cause any harm to the pigeons."

But the blue-coloured pigeon may be about to become extinct - the factory is due to close later this year.


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Picture didn't copy but you can see it here http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/me...ling_blue.html

[Lin Hansen]

Hi Mistenle,

Thanks for the article and especially the link, so we can see the picture. I'm glad to hear that the dye is not harmful to the birds....That "blue" pigeon sure looks pretty!

Linda