What shade of green are ekkies really?

[Parrotlover418]

Here's the article about ekkies changing color based on their mood: Does Your Bird Use Light to Communicate?
I've also heard a lot of conflicting information about how extreme the subspecies differences are. You guys are saying there's not much color difference, but someone on a different forum that I can't post a link to, for example, says there's a lot.

 

[Dinosrawr]

Just to answer on birds "changing colour"... humans cannot see UV light, but birds can. The only thing that changes the level of UV that a bird's feathers project is their health.

Bird feathers cannot physically change visible shades of light on will because their feather colour is dependent on bone or feather structure. The ONLY way they can influence feather colour is via diet IF their feather type is a pigmented rather than structural colour.

Humans see the wavelengths of 400-700 nm, and UV wavelengths are 320-400 nm. Humans do not have the receptors in their eyes to perceive all of the colours within the 400-700 wavelength however, and personally I think the idea of seeing a change of colour in a bird other than a juvenile moult, seasonal change, or health issue is pretty much impossible.

I highly recommend reading this article, and I do wish the article you cited actually discussed the researched understanding of how birds DO use light to communicate:

www.vri.cz/docs/vetmed/54-8-351.pdf

 

[chris-md]

Here's the article about ekkies changing color based on their mood: Does Your Bird Use Light to Communicate?
I've also heard a lot of conflicting information about how extreme the subspecies differences are. You guys are saying there's not much color difference, but someone on a different forum that I can't post a link to, for example, says there's a lot.

Differences are more stark and obvious in the females. Males are much more difficult to distinguish, even for experienced individuals. I got my masters in ecology studying intraspecific variations in body types of gammarus minus (differences in body type with a certain species of shrimp relative), and had to key out a couple dozen genera of insect larvae...and it still took me over a week just using photos and a key to figure out what subspecies Parker is.

And that's someone who never knew anything about ekkies in his life prior to this.

 

[Parrotlover418]

Here's the article about ekkies changing color based on their mood: Does Your Bird Use Light to Communicate?
I've also heard a lot of conflicting information about how extreme the subspecies differences are. You guys are saying there's not much color difference, but someone on a different forum that I can't post a link to, for example, says there's a lot.

Differences are more stark and obvious in the females.

Stark and obvious? Tell that to RS and SI females. They're practically identical!

 

[chris-md]

Except one should be much bigger than the other.

 

[Parrotlover418]

I once saw a female that I couldn't identify. It was the size of a CAG, bright red, with purplish blue and no yellow.