Feathers steal the show, but there's another feature every bird has that also comes in a rainbow of colors: their eyes. And, somewhat surprisingly, scientists know very little about the hows and whys behind all this variety. A recent study shines a spotlight on the diversity of avian eye color while calling on scientists to further investigate the incredible array of hues: red, yellow, blue.
This is called spectral filtering and results in distinguishing between colors. Overall, the oil droplets in birds' eyes play a crucial role in their exceptional color vision. They help to channel light and fine-tune the color perception of the cone cells, allowing birds to distinguish a wider range of colors than humans.
The vivid eye colours of some birds-of-paradise, bowerbirds, and cormorants seem to be under the influence of sexual selection, just like colourful feathers. Since eye colour varies within species, it could serve as a marker of age, sex, or mate quality. REVIEW Bird Eye Color: A Rainbow of Variation, a Spectrum of Explanations Eamon C.
Corbett1, Robb T. Brumfield1, Brant C. Faircloth1 1Department of Biological Sciences and Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA.
T he color of a bird's eye (usually the color of the iris) results from both pigments and phenomena such as the diffraction of light. Avian eye colors range from dark brown and yellow through red, blue, and green to metallic silver and gold. We suggest that future studies of avian eye colour should consider all three levels, including broad-scale iris pigment analyses across bird species, genome sequencing stud-ies to identify loci associated with eye colour variation, and behavioural experiments and comparative phylogenetic analyses to test adaptive hypotheses.
Birds have excellent color vision compared to humans. Their retinas contain four types of cone cells that allow them to see ultraviolet light in addition to the red, green, and blue light that humans can see. This gives birds a richer visual experience and allows them to distinguish colors that humans cannot.
Understanding what colors birds see best can provide insights into how they find food. Colorful Visions: How Birds See Color - Peek into the vibrant world of avian vision, exploring how birds perceive the spectrum of colors around them. Most birds are tetrachromatic (or pentachromatic), possessing a fourth (or fifth) type of cone cell sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light, extending their visual spectrum beyond human perception.
The avian eye's superior color vision is due to multiple types of cone cells and unique colored oil droplets that act as spectral filters, allowing for sharper color discrimination. Enhanced color. Request PDF Bird Eye Color: A Rainbow of Variation, a Spectrum of Explanations Birds display a rainbow of eye colors, but this trait has received relatively little study compared to plumage.