Structural coloration
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Structural coloration in animals, and a few plants, is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light instead of pigments, although some structural coloration occurs in combination with pigments. For example, peacock tail feathers are pigmented brown, but their microscopic structure makes them also reflect blue, turquoise, and green light, and they are often iridescent.
The brilliant iridescent colors of the peacock's tail feathers are created by structural coloration, as first noted by Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke.
In 1892, Frank Evers Beddard noted that Chrysospalax golden moles' thick fur was structurally coloured.
Electron micrograph of a fractured surface of nacre showing multiple thin layers
Butterfly wing at different magnifications reveals microstructured chitin acting as a diffraction grating
Biological pigment
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Biological pigments, also known simply as pigments or biochromes, are substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption. Biological pigments include plant pigments and flower pigments. Many biological structures, such as skin, eyes, feathers, fur and hair contain pigments such as melanin in specialized cells called chromatophores. In some species, pigments accrue over very long periods during an individual's lifespan.
The budgerigar gets its yellow color from a psittacofulvin pigment and its green color from a combination of the same yellow pigment and blue structural color. The blue and white bird in the background lacks the yellow pigment. The dark markings on both birds are due to the black pigment eumelanin.
Anthocyanin gives these pansies their purple pigmentation.
Bougainvillea bracts get their color from betalains