hummingbirds and red

rdjenkins rdjenkins@bellsouth.net
Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:09:29 PDT
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Ehrlich" <idavide@sbcglobal.net>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: [pbs] hummingbirds and red


>  One of the things nobody in this list seems to be taking into account is that we are unable to imagine just what a bird sees when it looks at a flower.  Birds have 4 types of color receptors, while we have only three.  And the colors they are sensitive to are more widely separated than ours.  They can see colors totally invisible to us.  So, we might look at a yellow flower and conclude it is plain and simply yellow, while the hummingbird sees it as having a compelling color design, which might not even be different, except for shade, from that of a red flower. 
> David

Perhaps they can see into the UV range as many insects do. 
http://naturfotograf.com/UV_flowers_list.html/…

Robert.


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