Price-Waldman Rosalyn M, Ali Jarome R, Shultz Allison J, Hogan Benedict G, Stoddard Mary Caswell
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA.
Sci Adv. 2025 Jul 25;11(30):eadw5857. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adw5857. Epub 2025 Jul 23.
Birds are renowned for their diverse and colorful plumage. Here, we demonstrate that vibrant plumage in the tanager genus is substantially intensified by a "hidden" layer of achromatic (white or black) plumage concealed beneath the outermost colorful layer. Using hyperspectral imaging, multispectral photography, microspectrophotometry, reflectance spectrophotometry, and optical modeling, we show that hidden white and black feather layers are systematically distributed on the body to enhance the brightness and saturation of carotenoid-pigmented and structurally colored plumage, respectively, by increasing or decreasing the amount of backscattered light that interacts with pigments or nanostructures. We compare male and female coloration and show that sexual dichromatism in some carotenoid plumage stems primarily from white layers in males and black layers in females rather than from differences in carotenoid pigmentation. Last, we find that white and black hidden feather layers are widespread in colorful passerines. Hidden feather layers likely play a previously overlooked but critical role in colorful plumage evolution in birds.
鸟类以其多样且色彩斑斓的羽毛而闻名。在此，我们证明在唐纳雀属中，鲜艳的羽毛在很大程度上是由隐藏在最外层彩色羽毛之下的一层消色差（白色或黑色）羽毛所强化的。通过高光谱成像、多光谱摄影、显微分光光度法、反射分光光度法和光学建模，我们表明隐藏的白色和黑色羽毛层在身体上有系统地分布，分别通过增加或减少与色素或纳米结构相互作用的后向散射光量，来增强类胡萝卜素色素沉着羽毛和结构色羽毛的亮度和饱和度。我们比较了雄性和雌性的羽色，并表明一些类胡萝卜素羽毛的两性异色主要源于雄性的白色层和雌性的黑色层，而非类胡萝卜素色素沉着的差异。最后，我们发现白色和黑色隐藏羽毛层在色彩鲜艳的雀形目中广泛存在。隐藏的羽毛层可能在鸟类色彩羽毛的进化中发挥了一个此前被忽视但至关重要的作用。
