Ultraviolet Bird Photography

My favourite blue tit fact is that they are sexually dichromatic under UV light only. The male crown is brighter in UV and females prefer males with brighter crowns. Mere humans can't tell the difference.

Comes from this rather brilliantly titled paper: Blue tits are ultraviolet tits https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1688906/

I read a passage in a book growing up, I can't remember what book it was, but it was about how crows are only black to humans, they can see different colors than we can so they're very colorful to each other, covered in all sorts of brilliant colors.

Another fun fact: bees can see utraviolet, and flowers are "designed" for bees, so many of the patterns are invisible to humans, but visible under UV photography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_coloration_in_flowers

https://www.wildflower.org/magazine/native-plants/a-differen...

I'm a little surprised at how little difference there is.

Yes, some of the colors shift due to the false-color addition of the UV channel but there were no new patterns or highlighted areas.

Daytime birds are tetrachromats (as are some reptiles), and have dedicated receptors for UV, so they see each other VERY different than we see them!

https://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/17B.html

So much of the world passes us by out of sight

Oh to be a mantis shrimp, have 16 different photoreceptors, and see not only into IR and UV, but the polarization of light too!

Very different vibe but reminds me of The Oatmeal's tribute to the mighty Mantis Shrimp.

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

they could at least show cassowaries!

Happy to realize this did not say ultraviolent. A small but confusing Clockwork Orange reading mistake.

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