Why is blue the rarest color in nature?

Do you know how many things are naturally blue? Why is blue the rarest color in nature?

Everyone knows that nature is beautiful and full of possibilities. 

Whether on land, at sea or in the air, there is no shortage of unique combinations of colors, textures and shapes that make our planet even more fascinating.

And when it comes to nature, we are used to hearing about species that can be considered rare – like animals or plants.

But did you know that in addition to several specimens considered rare, there are also colors that are difficult to find in nature?

And among these colors, the rarest of all is a color that – surprisingly – is very present in our daily lives. 

We're talking about the color blue!

But do you know why this happens and why blue is the rarest color in nature? 

That's what we're going to talk about throughout today's material! Here, you'll find out more about the color blue.

Furthermore, you will also understand how a color so common in our daily lives can be, at the same time, one of the rarest and most difficult colors to find in nature!

Have a great read!

Why is blue the rarest color in nature?

If I asked you to list blue things found in nature, you would most likely talk about the sky, the sea – depending on the quality of the water – some species of flower or even some bird, right?

But be aware that this list of items present in nature and that are naturally blue is more limited than you might think!

Among all the species that humans have knowledge of – be it plants, flowers, types of stones or even animal scales and feathers – 

And the question remains: why is blue the rarest color in nature?

In fact, the answer to this question has more to do with how human eyes see the world than with the structure of the rest of the world itself.

And we will explain it to you better.

You may have heard that the color of the coat – whether skin or feathers – of many animals is directly related to their diet, right? 

And the best-known example is the famous flamingos. In fact, these famous birds – which are known for their fascinating pink hue – are not born that color.

These birds acquire this foul hue from their diet, which consists of certain algae and their pigments.

And now you must be wondering what types of food found in nature can turn an animal blue, right?

That's where the other aspect we mentioned comes in: the way our eyes see the world!

Why blue is the rarest color in nature and the relationship of our eyes 

One of the main people responsible for answering this question – and also for tracing the relationship between these two aspects – is the scientific writer Kai Kupferschmidt.

Kai is the author behind the work “Blue: In Search of Nature's Rarest Color” (or “Blue: In Search of Nature’s Rarest Color”, in a free translation), a book entirely focused on clarifying this issue.

And it was according to Kai's studies that we can better understand the relationship between our eyes and why blue is the rarest color in nature.

Based on the principle of our body, human beings are able to see the thousands and thousands of colors in the world because each of our eyes has millions of cells that are sensitive to light. And these cells are called cones.

Furthermore, these cells are also sensitive to a certain wavelength of light. 

And taking that into consideration and looking at a human eye with normal vision, there are three different types of cones in the eye, and each type of cone is more sensitive to a certain wavelength of light. And those colors are red, green and blue.

When the information from these cells reaches our brain – as electrical signals that communicate all the types of light reflected by what we see – it is then interpreted as different shades of color by our brain.

It may seem a little complicated, but it happens every moment of our daily lives.

According to Kai, when we look at a certain colored object, the object absorbs part of the white light that falls on it and reflects the rest of the light at a certain wavelength. And that is what defines a color.

Why do blue species still exist even though they are rare?

According to Kupferschmidt, although rare, there are some exceptions when it comes to blue species. And each species has its own explanation.

In the case of a blue flower, we see that color because it absorbs the red part of the spectrum. In other words, we see blue because that color is the part of the spectrum that the flower rejects. 

And to do this, they need to generate a very specific type of molecules. This means that less than 10% of the almost 300,000 plant species in the world produce blue flowers.

In blue animals, the process is not the same, but the result is very similar.

In these cases, they depend on physics to acquire the blue tone. In general, these animals have a different structure. In them, these surfaces manipulate the layers of light reflected there.

In this way, some colors end up canceling each other out, causing only blue to be reflected. 

This happens with butterflies, birds, fish and even some species of molluscs, such as octopuses.

Conclusion

So, did you already know all these aspects regarding the presence of the color blue in nature and how this tone is something rare to see?

It is extremely fascinating to understand a little more about the subject and, in addition, to understand the relationship between our eyes – and their ability to see colors – and the fact that blue is such a rare color when compared to so many others that we know.

Did you like this content? Then why not take the opportunity to read it too What is the meaning of colors in psychology and how does it affect us?