WHAT looks like dull plumage to us can be quite exciting to birds,
Scandinavian researchers have found.
They coated the throat plumage of male bluethroats (Luscinia svecica svecica)
with sunblock to reduce UV reflectance. Not only did these males take longer to
find mates and have fewer extra-pair copulations, but their own mates were less
faithful to them (Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B, vol 265, p
1313).
鈥淭he results show that it鈥檚 difficult to study avian colour based on human
perception,鈥� says Arild Johnsen of the University of Oslo, Norway, who led the
research. 鈥淭here may be other components that we can鈥檛 see.鈥�
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