Wild Colors

Bluestreak hap cichlid
Labidochromis caeruleus

Red-legged honeycreeper
Cyanerpes cyaneus

The brilliant coloring of the paradise tanager (Tangara chilensis) attracts mates and helps establish its territory.

Attraction
It’s a vanity of sorts. In wild courtships, males are often the flamboyant ones, hoping to catch the eye of less colorful females. And few flirt as colorfully as birds. Male red-legged honey creepers, normally a drab olive, develop striking blue crowns and breasts during their breeding season. Color changes such as this are caused by hormones, which are triggered by environmental stimuli such as changes in day length, altered temperatures, varied foods or slight variations in the earth’s magnetic pull. The triggers may be varied, but the goal is the same: procreation.

To brighten the mood at the McCormick Bird House, Curator of Birds Megan Ross, Ph.D., has installed ultraviolet lights in the birds’ exhibits. Birds see ultraviolet light, which is beyond the spectrum of light visible to the human eye. It highlights colors that we can’t see but birds find irresistible.

“Mate attraction is a big reason that many bird species are so colorful,” Ross says. “But color can also indicate the health of an animal. Feather color and condition might give an opponent an idea of how healthy another bird is, how vulnerable they are to attack.”

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