COLOR BACKGROUND:

Color in the animal world serves many purposes, some of which may be counteracting. Concealment is the first and most obvious function for many color patterns we see in nature. For example, snowshoe hares change their fur color from brown to white in the winter to match the background and the cryptically-colored black and white zebra blends in with tall grasses on the African Savannah. However, if color has evolved only for concealment, then how do we explain the conspicuousness of a bright male cardinal? The degree to which color serves multiple and contradictory functions varies across species, but the phenomenon is most common in birds, where bright coloration often conveys information as a signal of individual condition or quality.