Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Bird colour vision – from cones to perception

Kelber, Almut LU (2019) In Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 30. p.34-40
Abstract

Birds use spectral information for circadian control, magnetic orientation and phototaxis but most importantly for discriminating the colours of important objects such as food items or mates. Their tetrachromatic colour vision is based on four types of single cones expressing four opsin-based visual pigments and fine-tuned by the carotenoid composition in cone oil droplets. Bird colour vision is not as uniform as previously thought, and single visual pigments have been lost in several bird lineages. Diurnal birds have fine colour discrimination and good colour constancy but can generalize over similar though discriminable colours. Bird colour discrimination is ultimately limited by receptor noise but can be impaired in natural... (More)

Birds use spectral information for circadian control, magnetic orientation and phototaxis but most importantly for discriminating the colours of important objects such as food items or mates. Their tetrachromatic colour vision is based on four types of single cones expressing four opsin-based visual pigments and fine-tuned by the carotenoid composition in cone oil droplets. Bird colour vision is not as uniform as previously thought, and single visual pigments have been lost in several bird lineages. Diurnal birds have fine colour discrimination and good colour constancy but can generalize over similar though discriminable colours. Bird colour discrimination is ultimately limited by receptor noise but can be impaired in natural conditions, depending on light intensity and background coloration.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
volume
30
pages
7 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85068210535
ISSN
2352-1554
DOI
10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.05.003
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
58e57f48-c7a0-416c-8617-ba7e59f8394f
date added to LUP
2019-07-08 14:30:24
date last changed
2022-04-26 02:59:44
@article{58e57f48-c7a0-416c-8617-ba7e59f8394f,
  abstract     = {{<p>Birds use spectral information for circadian control, magnetic orientation and phototaxis but most importantly for discriminating the colours of important objects such as food items or mates. Their tetrachromatic colour vision is based on four types of single cones expressing four opsin-based visual pigments and fine-tuned by the carotenoid composition in cone oil droplets. Bird colour vision is not as uniform as previously thought, and single visual pigments have been lost in several bird lineages. Diurnal birds have fine colour discrimination and good colour constancy but can generalize over similar though discriminable colours. Bird colour discrimination is ultimately limited by receptor noise but can be impaired in natural conditions, depending on light intensity and background coloration.</p>}},
  author       = {{Kelber, Almut}},
  issn         = {{2352-1554}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{34--40}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences}},
  title        = {{Bird colour vision – from cones to perception}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.05.003}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.05.003}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}