Chicken Coloration in Settings Where It Is Actually Cryptic

[centrarchid]

This is as close as I have seen an American Dominique hen to being cryptically colored. She is about 8 feet up in a wild plum tree with a dusting of snow and a clear sky shining through.

 

[nuthatched]

She's blending in nicely.

 

[ladybrasa]

Not quite the same, but I had figured the black/white barred pattern would be similar to a zebra’s stripes and difficult for predators to focus on …?

 

[centrarchid]

On relatively solid backgrounds they stick out like sore thumbs. A gray background may work.

 

[Hinotori]

I used to have barred rocks that would blend in out in the brush. Just not on a solid green background.

 

[Hinotori]

It does make it hard to target them and confusing, like this chicken on water from sometime in the early 1990s.

I still think chickens inspired the razzle dazzle paint jobs