Top Five Red Birds

Birds are pretty awesome, even someone as unenvironmentally friendly as Jeremy Clarkson knows that, but here in Europe most of them are a bit dull in terms of colour. Plenty of blacks, whites, browns, etc, but not many bright colours. They appear to be nearly exclusive to the tropics. There it's rare to see a bird that isn't brightly coloured. Here is a look at five of the finest bright red examples :)

5... Red Munia

Also known as the red avadavat, this little finch is found in tropical Asian regions where it lives in fields and grasslands. Only the male is red like this, and even then only during breeding season, but that doesn't make it any less eye-catching.

4... Scarlet Ibis

I don't think any of the birds on this list are quite as strikingly red as this one. It's a wader and lives along much of the northern coast of South America as well as some of the Caribbean islands but it is pretty much identical to more northerly white ibis. Quite why it evolved into this colour is any body's guess.

3... Northern Cardinal

I've always known this particular flapper as the logo of the Arizona Cardinals NFL team but it never really occurred to me to investigate the actual bird. I've now found that it's a songbird, and one which unsurprisingly lives through much of North America - including Arizona (chortle)! It looks awesome too...

2... Summer Tanager

Another all-red flapper and another songbird native to the Americas which is actually a member of the same family as the cardinal. It kind of reminds me of what a European sparrow might look like if it fell in a pot of red paint though.

1... Scarlet Macaw

It's not all-red, granted, but this tremendous squawker is probably the best known red bird in the world. Sadly, they are most often seen in cages outside of their Amazonian home but I'm lucky enough to have seen one in the wild in Brazil along with one of its blue and yellow brethren, albeit fleetingly.