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Nature’s Palette

Nature’s silent tongue speaks loudly at “The Language of Color,” a dazzling exhibit of birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, mollusks and iridescent beetles at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. “Don’t eat me!” shout some colors. “Come hither,” coo other bright hues in a flirty come-on.

With photographs and text, videos, interactive computer displays, and even a makeshift jungle containing a colony of live dart-poison frogs (whose brilliant colors remind predators that they’re unfit to eat), the exhibit explains how animals produce and perceive color—and why many species change color. The chameleon, for example, uses color to express mood or emotions, not for camouflage.

Examine bird feathers and butterfly wings as closely as an electron microscope. See the world through the eyes of deer, birds, fish, and whales and insects, which are able to see large parts of the color spectrum that are imperceptible to humans. Learn how the scarlet ibis lives up to its name, thanks to carotenoid pigments in the food it eats, and ponder research about why the zebra has stripes. One theory posits protection against predation: When zebras gather in groups the dizzying array of white and black blurs the outline of a single zebra.

Extended through March 18, “The Language of Color” is a short walk from the Harvard Square T station. For information and museum hours call 617- 495-3045 or go to hmnh.harvard.edu.

A chameleon stars in the Harvard Museum of Natural History exhibit “The Language of Color.”

FRI TZ RAUSCHENBACH/CORBIS