June 24, 2022 at 5:39 pm

Why Hummingbirds Can See A Color Spectrum That Humans Cannot

by Trisha Leigh

Hummingbirds are small and quick, flitting in and out of view in a way a colorful flash that can make you wonder whether or not you saw them at all.

But as beautiful as they are on the outside, what’s going on inside those tiny little bodies is arguably even more amazing.

According to researchers hummingbirds can also see in “non-spectral” colors such as ultraviolet, plus an array of other color combinations that blend different light waves with everyday tones.

iStock 1328935390 Why Hummingbirds Can See A Color Spectrum That Humans Cannot

Image Credit: iStock

Humans perceive around a million different colors using the cones and rods in our eyeballs to process the red, green, and blue spectrum of light, but the happy little hummingbird bird (and most other avians) possess retinal cones that distinguish the non-spectral ultraviolet dimension of light.

Line of purples Why Hummingbirds Can See A Color Spectrum That Humans Cannot

Image Credit: Spigget

This gives our flappy friends an entirely extraordinary and diverse experience of sight and perception outside of the palettes of which we are familiar.

As in, the color UV green is something that exists in their reality and tuned to their senses.

This also means that while human eyes can catch the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo violet of the rainbow, there are more colors that exist within a light spectrum that we literally can’t see.

iStock 1301435373 Why Hummingbirds Can See A Color Spectrum That Humans Cannot

Image Credit: iStock

Hummingbirds use these extra cone perks to find their preferred food, their preferred mate and to avoid predators.

So hummingbirds are most likely seeing a world of dynamic and intense color that a lowly human with only two weird opposable thumbs and no extra eye cones will ever get to experience.

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