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 ...

The iridescent shimmer that makes birds such as peacocks and hummingbirds so striking is rooted in a natural nanostructure so complex that people are only just beginning to replicate it ...

A tropical bird’s feather structure inspires a new, wearable ultrablack fabric.

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 ...

The male desert sandgrouse might not be much to look at, but his belly feathers give him the unique ability to absorb and carry water. Researchers have, for the first time, closely examined the ...

BRAINERD — I was hunkered in a blind I had placed along the edge of field when a magnificent tom turkey walked into view a mere 50 feet away. I “yelped” softly on a diaphragm turkey call, and ...

Sometime in the future, the water bottle you carry on a run, or the nasal swab you brave at the health center, could be inspired by the feathers of an African desert fowl. [Image: Johns Hopkins ...

“The light basically bounces back and forth between the fibrils, instead of reflecting back out—that’s what creates the ...

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 ...