No, I'm not talking about dying eggs different colors. We're talking naturally occurring color variation.
So, why do we have brown, white, speckled, blue, etc colored eggs?
According to the Royal Alberta Museum,
- essentially there are three main pigment colors (similar to what makes blood red). One ranges from yellow to reds to browns, the other two blues and greens. Different amounts of each pigmentation creates variation in violets and other colors.
- the colors come from the cells in the oviduct walls, as the eggs pass through.
- timing also impacts the markings on an egg: if an egg is not moving, then you get the spots. if an egg is moving while pigment is being applied, you see the streaking effects.
Genetics also play an amazing role in egg pigmentation: robins lay blue eggs, but sometimes they might have little spots. Cuckoo birds are actually able to mimic eggs of other birds so they are cared for. A-may-zing!
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