It is said that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. So, perhaps when a certain Alan Scott came in to possession of a magic lantern after a rail crash in 1940, which bestowed upon him certain powers, he was at a loss about how he should dress when in action.
Perhaps he remembered a stunning, exotic bird he had seen in books in his youth.
When he became the Green Lantern could it be he had the Paradise Tanager in mind?
Very probably not, but it must be said that the mask worn by the brilliantly colored Paradise Tanger is more than a little reminiscent of the entire Green Lantern Corps. This medium sized songbird is more than just a mask, however. It has sky blue underparts and its upper body is a glossy black. As for the tail – it can be either yellow and red or all red, depending on the species.
The bird is found in the Amazon Basin in South America, in over half a dozen countries there. Such is the brilliance of the bird’s plumage that it is known locally as siete colores, which means seven colors. There is no sexual dimorphism which means that the female, so often a dowdy color in other species, has the same magnificent plumage as the male.
As such it can be quite difficult to tell the genders apart. The only thing which differentiates is that the male calls out more often than the female (whether or not you agree that that is extended to other species is entirely a matter of opinion). Fortunately, the future of this species seems, for the moment, secure. Although their exact number is not known, they are described as common throughout their extensive range.
The Paradise Tanager is a clean freak. Each morning when the mist descends they awake before many other species of bird and ruffle and preen their feathers in order to keep them in tip top condition. Once a male has found a mate the pair elopes to the canopy of the rainforest. This is because the higher they nest it becomes less likely that their eggs will be eaten by predators. They chose a nesting spot and then the majority of each day is spent searching for nesting material, finding fruit to eat and hunting insects on the wing.
The species rarely lays more than two eggs at a time and another reason they nest in the canopy is because it puts them at a height where the humidity is just right for the eggs to develop. After about two weeks the eggs will hatch.
A startlingly beautiful species, the Green Lantern may not, after all, have used them as an inspiration for his mask. The Paradise Tanager is, however, a super bird in its own right.
