© 2003 François Blin ...Science Art-Birds

Title: Sérénite
Species: White Peacock (Pavo cristatus)
Artist: François Blin (for further information, click on the artist's name)
Image size:
Media: oil
Date: 2003
Artist's collection in Paris

The artist noted: "One early morning I surprised a young white peacock who seemed astonished by my watching him. Birds with white feathers have always fascinated me. Here, I have tried to capture the fluidity of the plumage."

This peacock species, a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent, is the national bird of India. Normally, of course, the male's plumage is iridescent blue-green or green. The shimmering iridescent hues change with your viewing angle because the color is produced by structures within the feathers--not by pigments--that change with the angle of light. In this peacock, the interference is still happening, but the effect is entirely washed out by the abundance of white light. That is, we see fail to see color because black pigment (melanin), which absorbs most of the incident light (allowing us to see the interference colors), is missing.

There are four degrees of albinism: partial (missing pigment in some areas), imperfect (diluted pigment), incomplete (pigment from the skin, eyes, or feathers, but not all three, and completely albino (missing pigment in the skin, eyes, and feathers).

Also, as the artist has so adeptly shown the "train" is not its tail--it's formed by elongated upper tail coverts.