Hummingbirds are known for their bright colours, long beaks and fast flapping of wings. A recent discovery has shown that hummingbirds can see colours that are invisible to the human eye. These are known as nonspectral colours (or hues) – colours that are not part of the rainbow.

Fun facts about Hummingbird’s vision!

• Humans can see one nonspectral colour – purple. We have 3 colour cones – red, blue and green. All the colours we see are a combination of the three.
• However, birds have four colour cones. This means they can see ultraviolet light with their naked eyes (which we cannot).
• In the study, researchers used an LED (tube light) device to display two different colours on circular surfaces next to hummingbird feeders.
• One feeder would contain sugar water (which the birds like), while the other contained just plain water.
• They kept changing the position of the coloured tube light so that the birds would not associate the sugar water with only one colour.
• They found that the birds quickly learned which light indicated the sugar water.
• It also showed that they could differentiate between green colour and ultraviolet+green colour. These look the same to humans.
• The birds could also see other nonspectral colours, like purple, ultraviolet+red and ultraviolet+yellow.

Watch a video on the bee hummingbird below:

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