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The Feathered Rainbow: Birds and Color

© Robert Hole, Jr.

Anyone who’s seen more than one bird has probably noticed that they come in different colors. Some are brown, some white, some bright blue, others drab gray. All together most colors can be seen in some bird.

Why do they come in all those colors? People have been studying this question for centuries, and the answer is complex, varying from species to species. However, I’ll try to give a brief summary version here.

Birds and their ancestors, like people, are mostly diurnal (active during the day). Being active in the sunshine, they can see color, and they have found advantages to using color. Nocturnal (night-active) animals, like most mammals, don’t use color in the same way because at night, the dim light doesn’t show much. If you sit in your room with the lights off, or just a night-light, you’ll see that you can’t see much color. If that’s all you saw of the world, there would be no reason to be bright red.

What do birds use color for? All the same things mammals use sound and smell for. Most of it boils down to communication. They use the colors to tell each other things.

The most important thing they need to say is “This is who I am.” Species recognition – saying, “Hey, I’m a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,” or “I’m a Gang-gang Cockatoo” is the most important part of that. They use their colors as advertising to tell the other Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers or Gang-gang Cockatoos that they’re one of the group. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers can also tell the Gang-gang Cockatoos that they’re not part of the group (of course sapsuckers and cockatoos live in different parts of the world, but you get the idea).

Another use for their colors is sex recognition. Not only will they say, “I’m a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker” but also “I’m a BOY (or girl) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.” This is important when looking for a mate. Being the right color (and pattern) saves birds a lot of time and energy. They don’t have to wait to hear the other bird’s voice, or watch behavior to find out if another bird is a potential mate, or a potential rival.

Not all birds use color in this way, of course. In many bird species the sexes can’t be told apart by color. But birds that don’t use color for sex recognition, such as swans, do have to spend more time looking for the signals to figure out if another bird is of the opposite sex (swan courtship can take weeks).

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