Shedding Light on Bird Egg Color: Pigment as Parasol and the Dark Car Effect, The American Naturalist 187 (5):547-563 | doi: 10.1086/685780 Why Are Robin Eggs Blue? | @GrrlScientist ...

Fun fact: Robin’s egg blue became an iconic color thanks to Tiffany & Co.s famous jewelry boxes. Its trademarked, custom Pantone shade is No. 1837, the same year the company was founded.

Three robin eggs sit in a nest, plus a double pyramid imposter “egg” placed by researchers. It’s not as uncommon as you’d think for robins to find foreign objects in their nests.

The two eggs were a lovely shade of blue: tending toward pale, but somehow still electric. Robin’s-egg blue, I guess you could call the color. This made sense. The eggs had been laid by a robin ...

A clutch of robin eggs shows some variation in intensity of the blue color. (Photo by Gwen Baluss) One interesting thing about robins is the characteristic color of their eggs.

Professor Mark E. Hauber of New York’s Hunter College, Department of Psychology, wanted to create 3D printed eggs alongside more traditionally handmade bird eggs to study the behavior of robins.

I have a robin’s nest tucked into a bush in front of my house. A few weeks ago I found a bright blue robins’ egg on the ground, encouraging me to look for the nest.