E11: Okay, but why is a bird’s world more colorful?

Bird vision isn’t just “better than ours,” It’s operating in a different color space, including ultraviolet. In Host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Allison Shultz, Associate Curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to break down what birds can actually see, how scientists measure color in the real world, and why feather color is one of evolution’s most powerful (and misunderstood) tools.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

1. How birds see a whole extra dimension of color (including UV) and why we can’t truly experience “bird vision” without the biology to match
2. How feathers make color through pigments and nano-structures
3. How studying bird color is changing fast, from spectrophotometers to UV-capable cameras, plus why female coloration and “dirty birds” are reshaping what we think we know

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

1. Northern Cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249823
2. House Finch audio contributed by William R. Fish, ML12932
3. Guinea Turaco audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML140992
4. Northern Jacana audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML140224
5. Common Eider audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235534
6. Mountain Bluebird audio contributed by Dave Herr, ML47592
7. Palm Tanager audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML88937
8. Greater Bird-of-Paradise video contributed by Tim Laman, ML465370
9. King Bird-of-Paradise video contributed by Tim Laman, ML455252
10. Paradise Tanager audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML127399

Additional media used with permission under Creative Commons:

1. Plum-throated Cotinga (Cotinga maynana) in Peru image contributed by Harsha Jayaramaiah, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
2. Lovely Cotinga (Cotinga amabilis) image contributed by desertnaturalist, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons