Fifty Shades of Black: These Bird Feathers Are The Darkest Never Seen

Scientists studying the many shades of black have discovered how birds create one of the blackest blacks known: super-black feathers

© by GrrlScientist for Forbes | LinkTr.ee

The male Superb Bird of Paradise (Lophorina superba), displays to a female (brown). The male has super black feathers surrounding a bright blue feather patch. (Credit: Ed Scholes.)

Long before Britain’s National Physical Laboratory first developed a super black coating for its instruments to absorb stray light photons reflected from surfaces, birds invented it through the magic of evolution.

A super black surface absorbs 99.6% of visible light that falls directly upon it whereas black pigment absorbs approximately 97.5% of visible light. But when the light’s angle of incidence is increased to 45 degrees, super black is even more effective; absorbing 99.9% of light photons. By preventing any light from escaping, super black creates the illusion of a black void, a tear in the fabric of the universe.

Who are the birds that evolved this innovation long before scientists developed it? The birds of paradise. There are 42 species of birds of paradise, all placed in the taxonomic family Paradisaeidae…