Characteristics Of The Birds Of Paradise

In a forest in Papua New Guinea, one bird is making scientists envious of its incredibly black plumage. The feathers of the mysterious bird are said to be so black that looking at seems to be as if you are looking at a black hole. Meet nature’s superbly black wonder birds - the “Birds of Paradise.”

The Birds of Paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae which are native to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Eastern Australia. The male members of these family have outlandishly colored plumage and dances that they use to attract females, while female birds are simpler in comparison. While most of the male birds have colorful brilliant feathers, the birds of paradise have evolved to don a pitch black plumage that absorbs light.

According to a study published in the Nature Communications journal, researchers had found out that the
The researchers said that the feathers of the mysterious birds can be compared to “Vantablack”- the darkest man-made material which absorbs 99.96% of light. They also give off a similar effect seen on other man-made materials such as solar panels and space telescopes.

The study explained that the microscopic structure of the feathers on these magnificent birds is what allows them to absorb light - a structure that can be compared to the man-made black materials designed by engineers.

Rick Prum, a William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale, and lead author of the study said that the similarity of the light-absorbing structure in both birds and man-made materials can be considered as an evolutionary coincidence.

“Evolution sometimes ends up with the same solutions as humans,” he