WHEN THE Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt arrived in South America in 1799, the colours astonished him. “Look at the blossoms, the birds,” he wrote. “Even the crayfish are blue and yellow.” ...

Of all the vertebrates on Earth—that is, animals with backbones—birds are the only ones that lay colorful eggs. Scientists are still unsure why, but new research brings us a step closer to finding out ...

Songbirds that dwell in tropical regions closer to the equator are more colourful than those living in milder climates. The findings support the idea that tropical animals are generally more colourful ...

Hummingbirds are potentially the most colourful birds in the animal kingdom – at least, they are from the perspective of the birds themselves. An analysis of 114 species of the small, nectar-supping ...

Mary Caswell (Cassie) Stoddard, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and associated faculty in the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI), will present "Inside the Colorful ...

The redder, the better. And I’m not talking about beets, roses or presidential candidates. I’m talking birds. Well, some birds. In various species, red coloration in a male’s feathers or beak is an ...

Nature produces some truly extravagant costumes, and birds have evolved more than their fair share of dazzling outfits. Often, it's the male birds that steal the show with bold colors and unfurling ...

The long-held idea that birds living near the equator are more colorful than those living closer to the poles is true, suggests a recent study Paradise Tanager (Tangara chilensis). The sexes look ...

The rainbow of hues seen in modern bird eggs probably evolved in birds' dinosaur ancestors, which had eggs with colorful and speckled shells. That's according to a new study of fossil eggs in the ...

While hiking in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Siskiyou County near California’s northern border, I came across several colorful birds that were zipping around at high speed to gobble up ...