This volume's gorgeous pictures and lively explanations will captivate beginners as well as serious twitchers. Author and noted ornithologist Geoff Hill takes readers on an informative visual and narrative tour. Seventeen short chapters with engaging narrative and lots of photos with information-packed captions illustrate the mechanisms by which birds produce the characteristic and sometimes brilliant colouration of their feathers and other body parts. Why is a cardinal red or a bluebird blue? Why do some birds have plumage that is intensely coloured - is it pigment, light, gender, or simple good health? What roles do disease, heat, wear and tear, and other factors play in this process? What does feather display signal about sexual attraction and social status? How has colour camouflage evolved? It looks at the function of ornamental colouration and at how birds' signaling attracts mates and deters competitors. It gives answers to common questions such as why a male peacock makes its stunning tail displays and why a juvenile Roseate Spoonbill has colouration different from either parent.