Fade Free

Photographs and words – Nick Sidle

Photograph – European Robin, Erithacus rubecula, Merkinch, Inverness-shire, Highland Scotland

The question where do birds’ feathers get their colours is not an entirely simple one but we are now one step closer to understanding some of the mechanisms involved. A study based in Sheffield and published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’ shows that for some birds, including the Robin, their colours are not the results of pigments that could fade but are the product of the actual structure of the feathers. We are though looking at very small structures, they needed the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble to do the research and that just happens to be one of the most powerful microscopes ever built, a very large step up from your basic table top model.

Photograph – European Robin, Erithacus rubecula, Battan Forest, Inverness-shire, Highland Scotland

Spatially modulated structural colour in bird feathers:

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep18317

A significant part of the work was based on looking at the Eurasian Jay, known for its varied plumage including a brilliant blue, and found that variations in the feathers at a nano structural level determined the reflection of light and so the colours that we see.

Photograph – Eurasian Jay, Garrulus glandarius , Kew Gardens, Richmond, London

Science is using technologies like the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility to look at a number of questions that have evaded a complete answer till now, including the issue of how Geckos can manage to run up vertical surfaces and across ceilings and then how these biological marvels can be adapted to use in human engineering. The whole field is has been called biomimetics and could, in the future, lead to some incredible breakthroughs and not just fade free colours. Till more is known though, please don’t try this at home or anywhere else for that matter. Geckos can do it, people can’t, now and at least for the foreseeable future.

Photograph – Yellow-bellied House Gecko, Hemidactylus flaviviridis, Thanjavur, South India