Gull Flight detail
These gull silhouettes are carved from the shed tail feathers of a great blue turaco. These birds live in sub-Saharan Africa where their bodies have learned to use copper in the food they eat to make green, red, and blue-colored feathers. Other birds also grow green, red, and blue feathers but not by using copper. For their red feathers, they metabolize a class of chemicals called carotenoids in the food they eat. The blues in all birds’ feathers except the turaco comes from the light absorbing and reflective microscopic form of the structure of their feathers.