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Metallic colors in birds produced by structural coloration
The sparkling metallic colors of birds like this Mariqua sunbird (Cinnyris mariquensis) are produced by structural coloration, wherein crystal-like nanostructures manipulate light.
[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants IOS 2029538 and DEB 2112468.]
Learn more in the Princeton University news story Birds’ dazzling iridescence tied to nanoscale tweak of feather structure. (Date image Nov. 2021: unknown; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Jan. 14, 2022)
Credit: Microscopy image by Rosalyn Price-Waldman and Klara Nordén, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University
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