Hummingbirds Spark the Skies

                  Hummingbirds were called "glittering fragments of the rainbow" by the famous bird artist John Audubon.  They are the only birds in the world with so many super-bright, shiny colors.
                  To learn more about this tiny superstar, the newspaper talked with the founder of The Hummingbird Society, H. Ross Hawkins.
Some colored feathers
                  Hummingbirds get some of their colors from pigments, or chemical colors, just like most birds do.  These pigments always show the same color.
                  For example, a blue jay is always blue, no matter how the light hits its feathers.
Feathers rainbows
                  But the hummingbird's brightest colors come from the way its feathers are made.  Tiny layers of feathers cells break the light into brilliant colors, just as water breaks light into a rainbow.
                  Unless the light hits the bird just right, you can't see the bright colors at all.  The bird just looks dark.
A colorful strategy
                  The ability to display colors when they want is a great help to hummingbirds.  A male flashes his bright colors to attract a female or scare off an enemy.  Even a hawk can be scared off if it sees a sudden burst of color.
                  Many females have white tips on their tail feathers.  Althoughmost females are not as brightly colored as males, they often flash their white-tipped tail feathers to scare off enemies.