Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds.

I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

This is episode number 67.

It's the last episode of 2022, so that means it's the annual review.

We're going to look back at 2022, at some of the most interesting

scientific studies of birds that were published this year. Will this be a painstakingly thorough

review of everything that scientists learned about birds in 2022? No, not so much.

The studies I'm telling you about today,

while they did make it into the news feed,

are just the ones that I found most exciting.

Or at least, interesting.

I decided they're worth yapping about.

So let the yapping commence.

Let's look at some of the awesome things we learned about birds in 2022. The first scientific study today has to do with hummingbirds and with the colors of bird feathers.

Birds are, of course, among the most wildly colorful creatures around.

Think about the thousands of different colors you can see across the plumages of birds around the world.

Black, white, gray, brown, grayish brown,

yellow, orange, red, green, basically all the colors, right?

Bird feathers display an enormous range of colors that are visible to human eyes.

But birds, you might recall, can see many more colors than humans can. We have three

...