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https://theconversation.com/birds-use-hidden-black-and-white-feathers-to-make-themselves-more-colourful-261567>
"Birds are perhaps the most colourful group of animals, bringing a splash of
colour to the natural world around us every day. Indeed, exclusively black and
white birds – such as magpies – are in the minority.
However, new research by a team from Princeton University in the United States
has revealed a surprising trick in which birds use those boring black and white
feathers to make their colours even more vivid.
In the study, published today in
Science Advances, Rosalyn Price-Waldman and
her colleagues discovered that if coloured feathers are placed over a layer of
either white or black underlying feathers, their colours are enhanced.
A particularly striking discovery was that in some species the different colour
of males and females wasn’t due to the colour the two sexes put into the
feathers, but rather in the amount of white or black in the layer underneath."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
