Watercolor of blue featherWatercolor of blue feather  


   

What makes a blue bird blue?

The blue in feathers isn't a pigment. The color that we see is created by the way light waves interact with the feathers. Tiny air pockets and melanin pigment crystals in each feather scatter blue light and absorb the other wavelengths.

Without yellow and red, we see blue.

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow bird with red head

 

Other feather colors are actual pigments.

 

 

 

     



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