Ask a Scientist Staff

Bill, Alabama, U.S.A.

Where do bird feathers get their colors from? Do they get the pigments from their food?

Ask a Scientist Staff

The colors in bird feathers are produced by three different mechanisms involving carotenoid-, melanin-, and structurally based color.

Carotenoids are pigments produced only by plants. Birds consume them in fruits, seeds, and certain animal products when they are replacing their feathers, thus growing red, orange, or yellow plumage.

Melanins are amino acid–derived pigments (tyrosine, in particular) produced endogenously and deposited in feathers, leading to black, brown, and rust-colored plumage.

Structural coloration results not from the deposition of pigments in feathers but from particular arrangements of feather barbs and barbules that produce light interference and refraction, giving feathers their blue, purple, green, and iridescent colors. It is often this type of feather coloration that reflects ultraviolet light and produces hidden UV colors in avian plumage that humans can't even see.

08/19/09 20:04