Hello from Nikki and Zach

[izenx]

Hey there,
We are two humans, Nikki and Zach, along with a beautiful, sassy, spoiled fluff butt Green Cheek Conure named Naobi. She loves sunshine, water showers, and asserting her opinion, which she believe's to be superior, loudly and confidently. We are not sure of her age, but we know she's still a young girl.

We are very excited because we just had a little chick of our own, Justin Aidan. Daddy is an IT guy and Mommy is an artist. Thanks for checking Naobi out, she loves to take a shower under kitchen sinks: Naobi Showering!

[Chantilly]

Aww Naobi is so cute!!! Welcome to the forum Nikki, Zach and Naobi

[liz]

Welcome to the forum.

I just love watching little feathered beings take. It is so funny. I can't think of any other critter who is so much fun watching while taking a bath.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum! Yes, GCCs LOVE their baths and often prefer to do it 'shower like' although they do take the bowl ones, too. Naobi looks to be a yellow-sided (and what a cutie patootie!) and they are certainly VERY colorful. I was talking to my second daughter early this morning and I was telling her that people often don't realize how many colors these little birds have... my Codee has white, two shades of grey, black, yellow, orange, pink, red, maroon, three shades of green, turquoise and teal! - Unbelievable, isn't it?)

[Wolf]

Just out of curiosity, and if anyone one this forum would know, this would be you, Pajarita, How many of those colors are actual colors and how many of them just appear due to the structure of the feathers?

[Pajarita]

All colors except for iridescence and blue (or any other color that results from blue been combined with another color) result from pigments or the lack of them (as in white). So all iridescence and shades of pure blue are structural while 'combination' colors like different shades of green, teal, turquoise, etc come from the structural blue AND a pigment. There are different pigments and the combinations and/or degree of intensity 'make' different colors.

A few good links. About feather color in general:
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/how-b ... -feathers/

About the blue color:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-n ... 90/?no-ist

This one is about the relationship between the red color of feathers and the functioning of the liver (which explains the 'red suffusion' found in parrots -mostly lovebirds but other species, too- with liver issues)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 074854.htm
picture of a lovebird with red suffusion:
http://www.angelfire.com/rings/ringcage ... fusion.jpg
picture of a GCC with red suffusion (bird also acted 'drunk'):
http://board.birdchannel.com/Uploads/Im ... 4-4183.JPG

And this one is specific to the red coloration in parrots:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1629064/

[izenx]

Wow that's amazing, I never knew that the blue wasn't from pigments, but I guess that's why you don't see it in nature much except for with light refraction?

[Pajarita]

Well, actually, there are lots of birds that have blue feathers -some, so very intense and bright that they look as if somebody dipped them in a bucket of paint! Look at the indigo bunting: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/a ... o-bunting/

Amazing, isn't it?!

Another fact that you might find interesting. The reason why the structure of the feather results in a blue color (or has UV reflectors), is the same reason why we see the sky as blue, a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering (well, mainly, there are other scattering mechanisms). Only, in the sky, it's the air the light has to go through that does it and, in birds, it's the spongy medulla of the keratin and the barbs plus there is normally what we call a 'dark factor' in plumage produced by the pigment melanin (brown and black) so the blue of birds is usually darker and more intense than the paler sky blue. Cool, isn't it?!

See these:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v3 ... 028a0.html

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~crs2/report.htm