Female Pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) lays vibrant blue colored eggs ,ensuring their partners stick for long and take care of the eggs.But not many realized that the females are indeed paying a huge price for giving wonderful coloration to the eggs.The blue color in many birds’ eggs comes from the compound biliverdin, a breakdown product of the heme unit in haemoglobin, which circulates freely in the blood. But biliverdin is not just a pigment, it is also an antioxidant used by the body to prevent cellular damage.

Researchers predicted that blue color of eggs can be a indication of females health to the males as it comes from antioxidant or could be a way for the male birds to stick around for rearing young ones.

In order to find out that females indeed compromise on health so that blue eggs can be laid,Judith Morales at the University of Vigo in Spain and her colleagues monitored 100 boxes near the village of Lozoya in central Spain, where pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) commonly nest.

By tracking the progress of 48 females authors predict that the birds somehow shift their allocation of biliverdin towards the eggs, depleting their own antioxidant defences in the process.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first evidence that blue eggs are not free — there is a big price that the females are paying,” Judith Morales ,University of Vigo, Spain.

Whether this is particular for flycatchers and blue eggs for bi parental care is the case in others birds species also is to checked,but Morales suggest other bird species might also pay the same stiff penalty of compromising health for vibrant blue eggs.

Image Credit : Flickr / Corsi Net

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