Photos of iridescence

Featheredsamurai · Jul 1, 2013

Yesterday I got a photo of Kenji's iridescence and thought it was super cool. I've always been a bit mystified by iridescence, it's so incredibly beautiful! We get Anna's hummingbirds in the backyard year round and they look like little jewels. I hope to one day be able to take Kenji outside in the sunlight and see it naturally rather than with my flash. I was pretty excited when I saw this, Rosie isn't iridescent at all and I never knew Congo's were. I did know that Tenmeh's are iridescent as you can see by this photo.

Anyone else have iridescence photos of their parrots?

Here you can see the lilac color on his belly

a close up photo, this shows that only the tips of the feathers are iridescent.

cockatielgirl · Jul 1, 2013

thats so cool!

JDlugosz · Jul 1, 2013

I read something about most of the bright colors we see on parrot feathers are caused by iridescence, not by pigments. Here's a description I found using a quick search.

See the Tyndall Effect. So, many colors are produced by structural effects; what makes them seem special so you would even know that it's not like a pigment? They change their appearance based on the angle of light, and can be affected by the color of the incoming light in ways you are not used to with normal pigments (though pigments can still do that too).

So I think that even a gray parrot can show "sparkles" of color along the feathers if the lighting is right; different wavelengths will reflect differently and different than a plain flat surface. A collaminated light source (like from a slide projector) could be used to explore the effects.

—John

SparkkiSparkS · Jul 1, 2013

I love that! My IRN is white but she shines bright green in the sun light.

JDlugosz · Jul 1, 2013

A number of years ago I did a study on iridescence. This is one case where the on-screen picture doesn't do it justice; a full-resolution print is awesome and I made several to frame.

DallyTsuka · Jul 1, 2013

does this count? you can see some in the wings, and in the blue rump feathers.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...82609829.18246.108747479284656&type=3&theater

and you can see some in the under wings on this photo

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...82609829.18246.108747479284656&type=3&theater

Featheredsamurai · Jul 1, 2013

JDlugosz said:
I read something about most of the bright colors we see on parrot feathers are caused by iridescence, not by pigments. Here's a description I found using a quick search.

See the Tyndall Effect. So, many colors are produced by structural effects; what makes them seem special so you would even know that it's not like a pigment? They change their appearance based on the angle of light, and can be affected by the color of the incoming light in ways you are not used to with normal pigments (though pigments can still do that too).

So I think that even a gray parrot can show "sparkles" of color along the feathers if the lighting is right; different wavelengths will reflect differently and different than a plain flat surface. A collaminated light source (like from a slide projector) could be used to explore the effects.

—John

Really interesting! I always knew that they weren't actually blue, but I didn't know it was with other colors too.

SparkkiSparkS said:
I love that! My IRN is white but she shines bright green in the sun light.

Wow! That sounds so cool!

DallyTsuka said:
does this count? you can see some in the wings, and in the blue rump feathers.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...82609829.18246.108747479284656&type=3&theater

and you can see some in the under wings on this photo

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...82609829.18246.108747479284656&type=3&theater

So pretty!

Photos of iridescence

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