Feather colour is more than skin deep

Where do birds get their red feathers from? According to Esther del Val, from the National History Museum in Barcelona, Spain, and her team, the red carotenoids that give the common crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) its red coloration are produced in the liver, not the skin, as previously thought. Their findings, published online in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften, have implications for understanding the evolution of colour signalling in bird species...

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