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.

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.