What Colors Are Birds Attracted to?

This experiment asks a simple question: what colors are birds attracted to? The birds in this experiment were shown feeders that had different colors (red, orange, blue, green and white).
Hypothesis
Of all the feeders, the birds will most prefer eating from the red feeder.
Overview
What colors are birds attracted to?

We will never know whether birds see or recognize colors in the same way that humans do. Still, we can make an educated guess. Male birds tend to have beautiful, colorful feathers, making them attractive to female birds. Based on this observation, there is good reason to believe that birds are able to perceive colors.

A bird’s eye makes up almost 15% of its body’s weight. In comparison, the human eye makes up only about 1% of our body’s weight. A bird’s eye has cones. Researchers who have examined these cones assert that there is a diverse range of colored oil droplets and visual pigments in these cones, and that his means that birds have a very highly developed sense of color recognition. Some species, such as the hummingbird, are believed to be able to see ultraviolet light because the flowers from which they drink the nectar have patterns that are visible only under the ultraviolet light.

To find out what colors birds are attracted to, we can look at the colors of flowers and fruits birds tend to consume. Humming birds, for example, like the color red. Other species such as the oriole like orange; they tend to feed on orange nectar. Scientific Terms
Intraocular cones

Materials
The materials required for the experiment are as follows:

- 5 bird feeders
- 5 cans of spray paint that come in different colors (red, orange, blue, green and white)
- a pack of sunflower seeds

Procedure
1. For this experiment, the independent variable is the color of 5 bird feeders (red, orange, blue, green and white). The dependent variable is the number of birds that visit each feeder. This is determined by observing and counting how many birds visit each feeder. The constants (control variables) are the amount of time allocated as feeding time, the type of bird food used, and the size of the bird feeders.

2. Paint the 5 bird feeders red, orange, blue, green and white using the spray paint. Let them dry for 2 days.

3. On the third day, the paint should have dried completely. Arrange the bird feeders such that they are each 3m apart from one another.

4. Feed the birds only once a day, in the morning between 8:00 am and 10:00 am. Fill the trays in the feeders with sunflower seeds. Count how many birds feed at each feeder and record this in the table below.

5. Over the next 4 days, randomly change the position of the bird feeders. Are the birds still attracted to the same feeders? Does the color or location of the feeders play a bigger role? Repeat procedure number 4. Ensure that the birds are fed only once a day, and feeding should occur at the same time each morning.