49. African Yellow White-eye A very yellow bird, this time! How do birds get their colour? Some colour is iridescence, as already mentioned, but all the rest come from a very small paint-box, only three kinds of pigment combined in a great variety of ingenious ways: arrangements of pixel-like dots, clever feather-structuring, and so on. A pigment called melanin produces a range of black, grey, brown and orange; it also contributes to feather strength which is why many birds have black or dark wing feathers. Another pigment are the carotenoids, involved in producing other bright colours. Interestingly, carotenoids are not produced by the birds on their own: the birds have to eat certain foods that contain these pigments which are then distributed to different parts of their bodies. Flamingos are the best example, perhaps: they’re only that pink colour because of the tiny crustaceans that the birds live on. The third type of pigment is found only in one kind of bird: the turacos. It’s called turacin, appropriately enough, and it is the basis of that lovely red in their wings. A related pigment, turacoverdin, accounts for the equally beautiful green of the turacos, but also of some other birds of the same family. Birds of AFRICAMA House 102 Birds of AFRICAMA House 103