Color My World in Birds

It seems birds, as a group, are a bit more colorful as you approach the equator.

Robert Ridgway would be thrilled to learn this. Ridgway was the Smithsonian ornithologist who, in 1886, wrote A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists categorizing 186 colors with which to illustrate birds. 

In 1912, Ridgway self-published an expanded version of this work for a broader audience — Color Standards and Color Nomenclature — that included 1,115 colors that often referenced birds, such as “Warbler Green” and “Jay Blue,” while others picked up other nature elements such as “Bone Brown” and “Storm Gray.”

In 1963, the first Pantone color chart, evolved from Ridgway’s work.

Want to learn more?  Read He Turned Birds into Pantone Colors by Jeannette Cooperman.