Parrots and blue light

[Elaihr]

Hi!

I remember a while ago, some of the members on this forum discussed the bird brain and how it's affected by blue light.

Now, on a Swedish parrot forum I stumbled across some people wanting to use a so called "moonlight" for their birds during the night. In the beginning these lights were intended for aquariums, to create a nice atmosphere, but someone said it would be just fine to use above a bird cage as well.

However, these lights were all blue. I'm no expert on light so I really can't say if the actual wavelengths are blue or not, but the lights used to create the "moonlight" were either blue led lights or blue diodes (lol, I don't even know if there's any difference, but there were two brands being discussed anyway). And if I recall correctly, what was being discussed earlier here on theparrotforum.com was that blue light during night messes up our birds, as the light penetrates their skulls and affects their pinal glands.

Does anyone remember what thread this was, or where the study that was discussed could be found? I just want to know so I don't give people the wrong information, but also it would be nice to be able to explain why blue light in particular shouldn't be used during night (if that was the case, perhaps I don't remember it all correctly).

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Sara, Penny & Joy

[Wolf]

Actually there were a number of topic in the health, dirt, and nutrition section as well as in the training section and in various other places. If you will go to these section and type " photoperiodic", " photoperiodism" and possibly " blue light" in the search box at the top of the page it will bring up posts containing those words that you can go to. Try that as it maybe quicker.

[Pajarita]

Well, for one thing, no light should be used at all at night because regardless of the color of the light (and yes, blue light makes them go into condition), any light at all will mess up their endocrine system. Birds are not mammals, their photoreceptor cells are different than ours, much more sensitive.

As to the actual color of the light, using monochromatic light is HUGELY unnatural and, as you might have surmised from all my postings, I firmly believe that captive birds do best when one tries as hard a possible to emulate natural conditions. But I did a bit of research for you and found out (and thank you for that!) that red monochromatic light is used to make chickens produce more eggs and green is used for growth (not that I would expose chickens of mine to any weird light but this is for large producers who don't give a hoot about the poor chickens comfort or even long term health). I did not find anything on exposure to blue monochromatic BUT there is a PDF document (so I couldn't copy it or link it here) that says that blue light will make birds exhibit anxiety behaviors (they talked about plucking and self-mutilation). There were no sources or references on this article but it is in the Mikaboo site and you can check it out yourself.

[Wolf]

I found a couple of things relating to blue lights for you.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-ligh ... z3KOUBGNjv and this one

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2936619/

[Pajarita]

Yes, that's what I found, too -that blue light inhibits melatonin production screwing up the sleep and circadian cycle:

Quote
In vertebrates, melatonin secretion is regulated by norepinephrine. Norepinephrine elevates the intracellular cAMP concentration via beta-adrenergic receptors and activates the cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA). PKA phosphoryates the penultimate enzyme, the arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT). At daylight, noradrenergic stimulation stops and the protein is immediately destroyed by proteasomal proteolysis.[23] Production is again started in the evening, which is called the dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO).

It is principally blue light, around 460 to 480 nm, that suppresses melatonin,[24] proportional to the light intensity and length of exposure. Until recent history, humans in temperate climates were exposed to few hours of (blue) daylight in the winter; their fires gave predominantly yellow light. The incandescent light bulb widely used in the twentieth century produced relatively little blue light.[25] Wearing glasses that block blue light in the hours before bedtime may decrease melatonin loss. Kayumov et al. showed that light containing only wavelengths greater than 530 nm does not suppress melatonin in bright-light conditions.[26] Use of blue-blocking goggles the last hours before bedtime has also been advised for people who need to adjust to an earlier bedtime, as melatonin promotes sleepiness.[27]
Unquote

[Wolf]

It also appears that green light acts in the same fashion, but is not as active in doing so.

[Pajarita]

It makes sense as green light is made out of blue and yellow light.

[Harpmaker]

It makes sense as green light is made out of blue and yellow light.

I would say rather that green light(495-570 nm) is close in wavelength to blue light (450-495 nm) so the bird is still affected. But I tend to be pedantic, especially about tech stuff(probably an engineer thing). Green has its own wavelengths, while some colors, like magenta, do not.

[Pajarita]

No, no, not pedantic. I like it when people correct me because it enables me to learn it right. So, on your comment: it's close because it's made out of the two primary colors on each side, no? I mean, green light doesn't really exist on its own, does it? (I am not very good with light, too complicated a subject so I just learn what I need and don't bother with the rest).

blue is 450 - 495
green is 495 to 570
and yellow is 570–590

And it's as close as violet (380–450) would be, only on the 'other side' but I haven't found any studies done on exposure to violet light that would shed any light (pardon the pun) because the only birds that were tested were chickens and they are killed after a few months of life (but they did find that high exposure gives them skin cancer) - and, researching this I found out that birds exposed for long periods of time to red light could not see blue light after -isn't that something?!

[Harpmaker]

Bird can't see blue after long exposure to red? That is interesting indeed! Their eyes must switch from making blue sensing chemicals to making red sensors.

But green light does exist on it's own--or rather, there are distinct frequencies that our eyes perceive as green, and that scientists have defined as green. Any color you see in a rainbow is a separate color of light. In practice, where two colors touch on the rainbow does tend to be a smooth transition, so the blue-green boundary(495nm) will look bluish-green, and the green-yellow boundary(570nm) will look greenish-yellow, but the current scientific agreement sticks to a short list of color words, slightly modified from that used by Isaac Newton.

There is no magenta frequency because the red and violet colors are opposite ends of the spectrum, so it has to be a mix of red light and violet light to look magenta. However, most color printer ink mixes cyan, magenta, and yellow to get the same colors computer screens get with red, green, and yellow. So printers mix cyan and yellow to get green. That might be what you were thinking of.

(I played with too many lasers, so I know WAY to much about this stuff. And none of it changes how parrots react to blue light anyway.)