Does your bird glow?

[Amps]

So I was flipping through my accelerated chemistry textbook today, looking for pictures to draw from, and I stumbled across a 'science in action' section that said members of the parrot family have feathers that glow in the dark. Apparently it's a mating quality. There was a picture of a budgeria thats face feathers were glowing. Apparently they take in uv rays and set them out at longer wavelengths that both birds and humans can see, much like a glow in the dark object. So I was wondering if anyone looks at their bird at night and notices them sitting there glowing. Lily doesent do it... Or at least she hasn't shown it yet. It would freak me out if I didn't know about this now... Kinda like an alien thing. I'd be all like: Ahhh my birds glowing! What do I do?!?!

 

[Autumn]

Yeah I think some small/medium sized parrots do glow under a blacklight but I'm sure finding one is rare. :^0

 

[Remy]

I've never heard of this, but if my bird started glowing I think I'd have to break out the Geiger counter!

 

[Autumn]

I thnk Ive seen it on baby tiels most but it is wierd, maybe genetics or who knows.

 

[suebee]

I've never heard of this, but if my bird started glowing I think I'd have to break out the Geiger counter!

oh justthink of the saving on energy bills

 

[mellykyitus]

ha ha, good one sue! LMAO

 

[Tena]

My keets feathers glow under black light

 

[Autumn]

Woah, really. I wonder if thats a sort of mutation, or does one get it after maturing or when they're young. I don't know

 

[Amps]

Imma check Lils under a backlight then. When I first read it I was amazed and skeptical. But it sounds so cool anyway. And you'd have to have alot of birds to save on electricity . Rave birds anyone?

 

[Tena]

haha yeah, I first noticed at the petstore when I got my blue keet, there was a black light in the little holding cell they had all of the birds in, I saw a yellow bird who seemed to have blue florecent wing feathers. I was like, cool I want that one! no wait, it's just that black light.

 

[Atwee921]

I've done some research and only budgies have it under a UV light/black light. Its really cool.

nvm i did more research and some cockatiels do too.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vXtWvHgNA&feature=related"]Sprite and Monte glow in the dark - YouTube[/ame]

edit: To Amps-your cockatiel wont glow in the dark because shes a girl :/

 

[Amps]

Dang I wish she would... Tho mums been talking about getting her a boyfriend too. I might still check and see. It would be so dang cool to have glowing birds.

Thanks for adding a vidya too, that's cool.

 

[mcw009]

No birds are bioluminescent (they don't actually glow in the dark) but a great many look wildly different under UV lights because birds are capable of seeing in the UV spectrum under normal conditions.
It's just another way of signaling fitness visually, just like a zebra finch's red beak or a peacock's tail feathers. The brighter the UV reflectance, the sexier the bird.

 

[StRiNgROCk]

I was amazed and skeptical. But it sounds so cool anyway. And you'd have to have a lot of birds to save on electricity I think I've seen it on baby tiles most but it is weird, maybe genetics or who knows.

 

[Mayden]

[ame=http://youtu.be/Hq1DsB3ssqE]The Eloquent Communicators - YouTube[/ame]

This is a brilliant episode, after the first 'yellow line' it goes into the colourings of birds and mentions the UV light

Love David Attenborough

Hm, yellow line doesn't show here. Go to about 10 mins in if you just want to watch the colour bit but his series' are very interesting

 

[roxynoodle]

I knew birds could see in the UV spectrum, which we can't, and can see more colors than we do. So this kind of makes sense actually. When they look at each other they probably see something different than what we see.

 

[Enjru]

The golden conure is another species of parrot that has a patch of feathers on it which shows UV luminescence. Interestingly, this patch of feathers is completely indistinguishable from the surrounding feathers under the human vision light wavelength spectrum.

 

[IcyWolf]

That's pretty neat! I have a black light in my closet, I'm so tempted to break it out and see if our budgies glow, I bet I could convince people that it's because we only live a few miles away from three mile island! lol

 

[IcyWolf]

Also, does anyone know at what age the males feathers begin to react to the uv lighting and do all males glow or just some? If they all do it, it would be yet another way to sex them.

 

[roxynoodle]

Also, does anyone know at what age the males feathers begin to react to the uv lighting and do all males glow or just some? If they all do it, it would be yet another way to sex them.

That's actually a very interesting and good idea! Your previous post made me lol!