It’s for the (male) birds… October 7, 2008

Wouldn’t you just know!

Female birds sacrifice health to create more colourful eggs

Published online 2 October 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1146

Bright blue eggs keep males keen on fatherhood.

Matt Kaplan

Great artists are said to pour all their energies onto the canvas, leaving them exhausted after a flurry of creativity. Now, researchers have found that female birds make a similar sacrifice when colouring their eggs, creating vivid hues at the expense of their health.

And of course they would have to have blue eggs!

Note:  this presumably is not all birds.