A hummingbirds brilliant throat feathers are called its gorget (pronounced gor-jit). The term comes from days of old, when a knight-in-armor wore a metallic collaror gorgetto protect his throat. The hummingbirds intense glint is the result of iridescence, rather than colored pigments. The birds throat feathers contain minutely thin, film-like layers of platelets, set like tiles in a mosaic against a darker background. Light waves reflect and refract off the mosaic, creating color in the manner of sun glinting off oily film on water.
