Colorful cockatoos?

[Pajarita]

Hmmm, I don't know if I agree that eating something blue would make their feathers turn blue...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ffled.html

[seagoatdeb]

I have seen this article too, and have no idea what to think about it.

[Chantilly]

How weird!... I

[liz]

Weird is right. They are beautiful. Pink flamingos get their color from their food. I guess that could be how the cockatoos got their color. The multi colored one is exciting to see.

[Pajarita]

No, I don't think so, Liz, and I'll tell you why. For one thing, feathers that are blue get it from their 'special' structure so a white feather simply doesn't have it because it did not 'make' the structure as it was been developed.

Also, not all birds are able to absorb the red in their diet into their plumage, it requires a special gene. Flamingos have it as well as other birds but not all. For example, the red factor canaries are not really pure canaries, they are the offspring of the cross of a Black Hooded Venezuelan Red Siskin (http://www.arkive.org/red-siskin/carduelis-cucullata/) and a canary (some say a Hartz Roller, which is a song canary - and some say a Border, which is a type canary). The Siskin does not only provide the red for their feathers, it's also the parent that provides the gene necessary for them to absorb more red into their plumage from their food. And that's why there are what we call 'color-bred' which are the red factor canaries as they are born (and kind of orangey) versus are 'color-fed' (which are a deep, super saturated red). The color-bred maintain their red color from eating food rich in betacarotene and the color-fed are canaries that get their color from chemicals (usually, canthaxanthin) added to their food (needless to say, I don't use the food with the chemical added to it). But, if you feed the 'red' food to a regular canary, its feathers stay the same color it was born with because they do not have the gene that allows them to absorb the red into their plumage.

[Wolf]

I have no idea, so I am just being a sponge and trying to learn.