The color of bird feathers comes from a combination of pigments and structural color, with the latter enabling some to glow in ultraviolet light.

Some organisms' colors come from structural color—tiny structures that distinctly scatter different colors of light, eliminating some while reinforcing others that become visible.

Fossilized pigment granules have enabled scientists to deduce the colors of long-extinct organisms, including dinosaurs.

Flamingos get their pink color from pigments in their food, but they cannot be any color because their bodies cannot process every type of pigment.

Violet is the rarest color in nature because it is the most energetically demanding visible light for pigments to reflect and for nanostructures to scatter.

Creating a perfect red pigment that is vivid, durable, and nontoxic is likely impossible.

Not all colored materials can become pigments—the process of grinding materials down into smaller particles may destroy the color-producing molecules.

Blood can be blue, green, magenta, or transparent due to differences in the oxygen-carrying respiratory pigments they contain.

View a gallery of biofluorescent animals, which contain cells that emit various colors when exposed to ultraviolet light.

Egg yolks and carrots have the same pigments that contribute to the yellow and orange colors of fall foliage.

Blood color differs across the animal kingdom, with some animals producing blood that appears green (a group of lizards in New Guinea) or blue (horseshoe crabs).

Some organisms can change color by quickly revealing or hiding various pigments, as seen in octopuses, squids, and other cephalopods.

Chameleons change color by altering the spacing of nanocrystals under their skin, which changes what colors of light are absorbed and reflected.

Starting with red, colorful objects will appear to lose their colors the deeper they are submerged because water scatters light, reducing the amount available to reflect off objects and be observed.

View a gallery of microscopic images of butterfly wings, revealing colorful layers of scales, hairs, and metallic-looking structures.

The same pigments that enable photosynthesis—chlorophyll a and b—are also responsible for giving most plants their green color.

Humans can distinguish about 10 million colors—a number that is limited by photopigments that only activate when exposed to specific wavelengths of light.

When processing light, the brain can perceive colors with no natural wavelength

Virtually all plants are biofluorescent because their photosynthesis is powered by chlorophyll, a pigment that glows red as a way to get rid of excess energy when exposed to ultraviolet light.

Biofluorescent animals—those that absorb light, such as ultraviolet rays, and re-emit other types of light, such as neon green—include some flying squirrels, scorpions, sea turtles, and platypuses.

View a gallery of plants made to shine using ultraviolet-induced visible fluorescence photography, in which organisms re-emit the ultraviolet light they are exposed to in vibrant, glowing colors.

Organic pigments can be made in a lab or in nature—the term indicates the presence of carbon-hydrogen bonds, not their source.

Breaking down sunlight and why the sun appears yellow despite emitting green light the most

Exploring bird skulls

Birds are living dinosaurs that evolved from feathered theropods

By separating light with tools such as prisms, scientists can reveal the presence and composition of celestial matter by identifying color fingerprints unique to specific elements and molecules.

Some octopuses change color while they sleep, potentially in response to dreaming about hiding, hunting, or other activities that involve changing color while awake.

Atmospheric composition and temperature impact the color of lightning

Leaves have orange and yellow pigments year-round, but they are masked until the fall, when shorter days reduce the production of chlorophyll, a green pigment.

Water is naturally tinted with a slight blue, but sediments and organics can alter its color

Why parrots can talk like humans

Blacklights can illuminate certain biological materials, including blood, teeth, and fingernails, because they contain fluorophores—molecules that visibly glow immediately after exposure to higher-energy light.

Sunsets can exhibit a greater variety of colors due to a greater range of cloud heights and atmospheric composition.

Eggshell color doesn't indicate taste or superiority

Color originates from the brain processing light of varying wavelengths

How birds are becoming research assistants

Stunning shots of a singing red-winged blackbird

The chlorophyll in plants captures energy in the form of red and blue light

Bruises go from blue-purple to yellow-green because of a breakdown of hemoglobin—the pigment that carries oxygen throughout the human body.

Cow urine, cuttlefish ink, and burned white lead were among the substances used as pigments throughout history.

Colored diamonds result from elemental impurities, structural deformities, and exposure to radiation.

View slow-motion footage of hummingbirds—the only birds that can perform sustained backward flight.

View an animation of how certain chemicals fluoresce—that is, emit visible light after having absorbed higher-energy light, such as ultraviolet radiation.

The colors of auroras change with the intensity of solar activity and with altitude because of differences in atmospheric density and chemical composition.

Tetrachromacy allows humans to observe 10 times the normal amount of colors

Melanin and light scattering contribute to different eye colors

In the 1950s, Alan Turing developed a mathematical model to explain why animals have stripes, spots, and other patterns based on differences in how quickly two interacting chemicals spread throughout a developing organism.

Colorizers convert Hubble's gray scale images into color composites of different wavelengths

From dragon's blood to bone black, explore a timeline of pigments used throughout history, including each pigment's composition, preparation methods, and uses.

The RGB color system resembles how quantum chromodynamics models quarks and the strong nuclear force—both quarks and gluons carry color charge.

Synchrotron radiation has revealed the fur color of creatures millions of years old