One obvious reason why people enjoy the existence of birds so much is their bright and varied colors. Humans — and most mammals — seem boring in comparison. But why are birds the colors that they are?

Feathers on 37 of 45 birds-of-paradise species emit biofluorescence. The feathers absorb UV light and release it as a ...

Beautiful bird plumage these days matches the color pallet of wildflowers — cardinals as red as Indian paintbrushes, andbluebirds as blue as bluebonnets. It’s not happenstance. Wildflowers attract ...

Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors ...

Why are some songbirds so brightly colored? A new study finds that a hidden layer of black and white feathers help their colors pop. Have you ever looked at a bird and wondered, how can it be so red ...

Feathers, essential for thermoregulation, flight, and communication in birds, originate from simple appendages known as proto-feathers, which were present in certain dinosaurs.By studying embryonic ...

Simon Griffith receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Birds are perhaps the most colourful group of animals, bringing a splash of colour to the natural world around us every day.