A portrait of a drake (male) Wood duck from my Best of Bosque workshop last December. When the light angle is right, all of the colourful iridescence show wonderfully!
As iridescent birds move, nanoscale structures within their feathers’ tiny branch-like filaments — known as barbules — interact with light to amplify certain wavelengths depending on the viewing angle. This iridescence is known as structural coloration, wherein crystal-like nanostructures manipulate light.