What Parrots See!

Parrots must have an amazing world to look at, since they can see in the ultraviolet spectrum of light!

These bananas, for instance, are not just green and yellow, but the ripe ones show as a vibrant blue!  This helps them to figure out which bananas are ripe enough to eat. 

This is what parakeets look like to eachother!  It's incredible!


From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_vision

"Ultraviolet
The Common Kestrel can detect the ultraviolet trail of its vole prey.

Birds can perceive ultraviolet light, which is involved in courtship. Many birds show plumage patterns in ultraviolet that are invisible to the human eye; some birds whose sexes appear similar to the naked eye are distinguished by the presence of ultraviolet reflective patches on their feathers. Male Blue Tits have an ultraviolet reflective crown patch which is displayed in courtship by posturing and raising of their nape feathers.[25] Male Blue Grosbeaks with the most, brightest and most UV-shifted blue in their plumage are larger, hold the most extensive territories with abundant prey, and feed their offspring more frequently than other males do.[17]

The bill’s appearance is important in the interactions of the Blackbird. Although the UV component seems unimportant in interactions between territory-holding male, where the degree of orange is the main factor, the female responds more strongly to males with bills with good UV-reflectiveness.[26]

A UV receptor may give an animal an advantage in foraging for food. The waxy surfaces of many fruits and berries reflect UV light that might advertise their presence.[17] Common Kestrels are able to locate the trails of voles visually. These small rodents lay scent trails of urine and faeces that reflect UV light, making them visible to the kestrels, particularly in the spring before the scent marks are covered by vegetation.[27] "

Peaches has also pointed out that Saw-Whet Owls also have bright pink underfeathers on their wings!  She wrote:

"hehe, there are porphyrins in their feathers that react to the UV light.  for a while, there was a theory that you could tell the age of the bird by the checking the brightness of the underwing, but we lit most of the owls 2 years ago, and there's no appreciable difference that we could see.  its been pretty much abandoned as an aging  tool, because when they molt, the new feathers are brighter anyway...  all right, enough rambling about owls for now :)"