Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds Reveal New Dimensions of Bird Vision (IMAGE)
Caption
While humans have three color cones in the retina sensitive to red, green and blue light, birds have a fourth color cone that can detect ultraviolet light. A research team led by Princeton's Mary Caswell Stoddard trained wild hummingbirds, like this male broad-tailed hummingbird, to perform a series of experiments that revealed that the tiny birds also see combination colors like ultraviolet+green and ultraviolet+red. The male's magenta throat feathers are likely perceived by birds as an ultraviolet+purple combination color.
Credit
Photo by Noah Whiteman, taken at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
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