Colour & Courtship

“Why are birds so extraordinarily beautiful? This exhibition examines sexual selection — Darwin's "other theory" — through the lens of avian plumage, song, and display behavior.”

Darwin puzzled over the peacock. The peacock's tail is heavy, conspicuous, and presumably attractive to predators. How could natural selection, which should favor survival, produce such apparently maladaptive extravagance? His answer — sexual selection — was controversial in his day and remains a subject of active research 150 years later.

"Colour & Courtship" examines sexual selection through the most diverse evolutionary showcase available: birds. From the ultra-black plumage of the birds of paradise — which absorbs 99.95% of light and makes the bird appear as a dark void with a few floating colored patches — to the structured iridescence of hummingbird gorgets that shift color with viewing angle, birds have pushed the boundaries of what biological materials can achieve.

The exhibition is organized around the mechanisms of sexual selection: honest signals, runaway selection, sensory exploitation, and the good genes hypothesis. Each mechanism is illustrated through specific species that provide the clearest examples, with high-resolution photography and behavioral footage showing the displays in action.