Looking at Birds in a Whole New Spectrum

Shipud writes "Historically, bird species are classified using may different indicators, including plumage colors. Also, plumage variation has figured heavily in description of similarity between species. In a recent article in PNAS, Robert Bleiweiss shows that if we look in the ultra violet spectrum, birds species which seem similar, or are even considered related based on plumage colors, appear quite different. Quite a few theories regarding supposedly sympatric (sibling) species would have to be re-checked now. And yes, birds can see in the near UV spectrum, which is invisible to humans."

Comments

Re:Added ability in humans

[shawb]

There was a student in my high school physics class who could see a bit into the IR. The teacher had a presentation and had something that we shouldn't have been able to see, but the kid could see it. Although I'm guessing that he wasn't tetrachromatic so much as just had a slight offset in the red receptor pigment. I think it would be trivial for a small mutation to change the pigment. IIRC, organic pigments are "tuned" to a particular frequency by a protein chain that hangs off the main cluster which alters the harmonic frequency, similar to how a longer guitar string will have a lower resonant harmonic frequency.