A bird of paradise spreads it feathers as it engages in a mating dance. (Credit: BBC/Youtube) Vantablack has been called the world's darkest substance. When it was unveiled in 2014, the material made headlines for the way it seemed to leach objects of their three-dimensionality; it was so black that every feature merged into a black hole. Darker than a black bear in a cave on a starless night, Vantablack looks downright otherworldly. But, humans are hardly alone when it comes to inky excess. Some birds, of a type normally associated with brilliant plumage, have feathers that rival the substance's light-stealing prowess, say a group of researchers in a paper published Tuesday in Nature Communications.
For male birds of paradise, the competition for a mate is fierce and deeply involved. The birds clear and decorate small areas in the forest to serve as wooing grounds, hop and twist about in ...
