The Contemplative Angler

Feathers are the mainstay of the fly tier. The hackles of a dry fly, the wings and tails of most wet, dry, and streamer flies -- all of these use the feathers of birds gathered from dozens of countries and climes. The colors are sometimes subtle, sometimes dazzling. But what I do not see when I run my hands over a Silver Pheasant skin, is the ultraviolet light reflected from the surface - and those reflected wavelengths may be crucial to the effectiveness of the fly I tie.

Feathers in visible light

Feathers with UV in blue

Just as trout are now known to have vision in the Ultraviolet as well as the visible human spectrum, birds are now being examined for both their UV reflecting plumage and their UV vision. For example, an extensive study of forest songbirds discovered that even when the male and female were identical in color in the visible spectrum, their plumage was markedly different when examined for UV reflectance. Unfortunately, the scientific study of UV reflective plumage and its effect on the mating pattern of birds has just begun - we do not yet have access to the UV characteristics of most of the bird species used in fly tying.