• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Scientist in England discover that Puffin beaks glow under UV light. (1 Viewer)

mikal

Member
He happened to have a Puffin carcass laying around his lab, and he happens to shine a UV light onto it, and accidentally discovers that the beak glows. LOL.

He's not sure why it glows, only speculating it may have been used to attract a mate.

Article here: Puffin beaks are fluorescent
 
Last edited:
Hi Mikal,

He's not sure why it glows, only speculating it may have been used to attract a mate.

Quite fascinating, many thanks for sharing the link!

This really gets me thinking: As birds can actually see one well-defined colour in the wider UV band, I suspect saying that "birds have always known about the extra colours in the puffin bill" is simplifying things a bit too far.

What humans can see is that the bill is reflecting more light in the human-visible spectrum than "it ought to". It might be that to birds, the same applies to their extra colour, as part of the UV band is invisible to birds, too.

Basically, the Puffin's beak features the equivalent of a black-light paint colouration.

To translate the bird's experience into human terms, imagine the beak shining bright red if you point a blue spotlight at it.

I would think that's a conspicious visual effect, even if you can see the "incoming" light, and in my opinion, it's a fair analogy of how birds might perceive the Puffin beak's "extra colours". It's really more like "extra intensity", probably.

(Maybe fluorescent safety vests can be used as an illustration for this: They don't stand out because they're orange, they stand out because they're more intensely orange than they would be without being able to transpose UV light into orange light.)

Regards,

Henning
 
He happened to have Puffin carcass laying around his lab, and he happens to shine a UV light onto it, and accidentally discovers that the beak glows. LOL.

He's not sure why it glows, only speculating it may have been used to attract a mate.

Article here: Puffin beaks are fluorescent

Fascinating. Perhaps best interpreted as an addition to the already over-the-top mandibular ornamentation of this (obviously) beak-centric species.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Fascinating. Perhaps best interpreted as as addition to the already over-the-top mandibular ornamentation of this (obviously) beak-centric species.

Nicely put :)

It would be interesting to check whether the effect is also present on the beaks of juvenile individuals. If it is, it might actually serve a purpose (or be a side effect of something else) different from ornamentation.

I strongly suspect you've hit the nail on the head, though.

Regards,

Henning
 
Hi,



Nicely put :)

It would be interesting to check whether the effect is also present on the beaks of juvenile individuals. If it is, it might actually serve a purpose (or be a side effect of something else) different from ornamentation.

I strongly suspect you've hit the nail on the head, though.

Regards,

Henning

What a great point. I would love to see if there's a difference in beak glow variation in juvenile birds vs adults.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top