Parrots and the beauty of their colors: a legend says that it was a cartographer, with the help of the Moon, who made them so colorful. But science, which with its "coldness" sometimes turns off romanticism, has discovered the true mechanism, thanks to a study conducted at the University of Otago (New Zealand)
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Parrots and the beauty of their colors: a legend says that it was a cartographer, with the help of the Moon, who made them so colorful. But science, which with its "coldness" sometimes turns off romanticism, has discovered the real mechanism, thanks to a study conducted at the University of Otago (New Zealand).
There are many parrots and they differ in size, colors, characteristics of the beak, legs and for many other reasons. But what unites them is the extraordinary beauty of their colors, particularly spectacular even compared to other bird species.
A legend says that at the beginning they were white as snow and that this was not liked by the parrot Felix, who wanted to distinguish himself from the others. For this he went to a house painter, who however only had white paint, therefore to the frog wizard, but he too was of no help because the colored coat he proposed to the bird was not as soft as its feathers.
Felix, however, a little distraught, met his friend Luna who gave him a letter prepared for him on which was written “Go immediately to the cartographer”. And the parrot did so. There he found all the colors in the world and had his feathers painted. But the news then spread throughout Pappagallopoli (The city of parrots) and so all the parrots became colored.
A very romantic legend that sees the moon as the creator of this spectacle that nature still offers us. The scientific reality, however, is a little different, and perhaps loses a little of its romanticism, but not of its beauty. In fact, researchers from the University of Otago found that the red and yellow pigments in parrot feathers interact with light in different ways, possibly because the pigment molecules in red feathers They "communicate" with each other.
Most birds generate colored feathers using two well-known methods: blue, green and purple are obtained when light is reflected from microscopic layers in the feathers, while most other colors, including red and yellow, are formed when the light is absorbed by chemically different pigments.
But parrots are unusual because their red and yellow feathers contain chemically similar pigments and this mystery had never been solved. Otago researchers then analyzed their feathers with a laser-based technique and discovered a heterogeneous group of pigment components interacting with each other. In other words, these components are actually basic orange and only turn red when they interact with each other in the feather.
Photo: Jonathan Barnsley
"We have shown that red pigments have a variety of chromophores (molecule, or part of a molecule, which absorbs visible light, Editor's note) [...] - explains Jonathan Barnsley, lead author of the work - Different chromophores can be generated when the molecules interact or they communicate with their closest neighbors, modifying their interaction with light ”.
And the discovery is not just a scientific curiosity in itself. In fact, most birds need to find and eat specific foods to produce their red and yellow colors, while parrots can do so without following a special diet.
According to the Otago researchers it is possible that they are able to synthesize the pigments useful for an enormous amount of colors. This mechanism, if confirmed, could be significant in theevolution of parrots and perhaps also of other animals.
Even if the legendary Felix never existed and even if the Moon didn't really help this extraordinary species to color itself, nature still manages to amaze us and science, explaining how, is no less "romantic".
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Roberta de carolis
