How parrot plumage gets its dazzling reds and yellows

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

Some birds are feathered tufts of color so resplendent that they stand out brilliantly from their surroundings.

“You have to ask why birds would do this,” says Joe Corbo, a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “And one of the leading hypotheses is that the male has elaborate ornaments or colors that are attractive to the female.”

Most birds with bright yellow or red feathers — think goldfinches and cardinals — use pigments called carotenoids to make those colors.

 

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/31/nx-s1-5172211/polly-rainbow-parrots-colorful-plumage-feathers