The eastern bluebird is a special bird. The blue of its feathers is unique. However, this colour is not based on pigments but on the special structure of the feather. Viewed under the microscope, the ...

A study explores how birds rearrange feathers after flights through gusts and foliage. The durability of bird feathers is evident in the ease with which birds preen and repair ruffled feathers using ...

Female tanager birds dig flamboyant males. So to build plumage that really pops with orange or red or yellow, a male has to eat fruits and absorb their carotenoids. The fancy feathers he produces then ...

Work from a research team is seeking to produce synthetic particles that mimic the tiny packets of melanin found in feathers. These tiny packets of synthetic melanin produce structural color, like in ...

The researchers found an evolutionary tweak in feather nanostructure that has more than doubled the range of iridescent colors birds can display. This insight could help researchers understand how and ...

Researchers found that the iridescent shimmer that makes birds such as peacocks and hummingbirds so striking is rooted in an evolutionary tweak in feather nanostructure that has more than doubled the ...

Ornithologist Carla Dove explains how the microscopic structure of a bird's feather can help identify the species and at the same time, make air travel safer for humans The Secret Life of Mistletoe: ...

When Yale University paleontologist Nicholas Longrich began studying a prehistoric bird called Archaeopteryx, he noticed something unexpected. For starters, the bird had small feathers on its hind ...