To find out about The Full Moon Art Challenge and learn how to join in, visit the event page

This is it, folks! The second full moon of August is rising tonight, which makes this the night of a blue moon!

A Blue Bird for the Blue Moon

For my moon art, I figured I could chose anything blue, so I decided to animate a little blue bird.

Here’s the animated art:

Here’s the static version:

For this piece, I wanted to draw a Mountain Blue Bird. While the more common varieties of Blue Bird sport a pink breast, male Mountain Blue birds have lovely shades of blue all over, making them a better choice for blue-themed art.

What is a Blue Moon?

A blue moon is the second full moon in a month. Since each moon is given a name according to its month, the rarely occurring second full moon of a month is automatically given the name “Blue Moon,” since the regual monthly moon name is already taken.

Blue Moons only occur every two or three years, which is why the saying “once in a blue moon” refers to events that don’t come around very often.

Aside from the calendar date, blue moons are just regular full moons. They don’t have a special color or anything. Except this year, our blue moon is also a “Super Moon,” a full moon that orbits the earth slightly closer than usual, giving it an enlarged appearance. There will be plenty to admire in tonight’s sky.

Blue Moon Facts

• Moon phases are twenty-nine and a-half days apart, so blue moons can only occur on the 30th or 31st day of the month.
• February can never have a blue moon. Even on a leap year, February still won’t be long enough to fit one in.
• The next blue moon will not occur until May 31, 2026

See you in September

September’s full moon, the Song Moon, will rise on the 29th. Share your Song Moon art on September 28th, 29th, or 30th.

Bonus Video

Here’s a video version of the animation. It doesn’t loop forever and may take longer to load, but there are cute sound effects: