When the Morpho butterfly rests on a leaf, the underside of its wings show an earthy brown colour. Yet when it flies, its wings give off a shimmering, iridescent blue sheen.
This video from Deep Look explains how this blue is effectively an optical illusion. The brown colours are created by pigments on the Morpho butterfly’s wings - i.e. they are physically brown.
But the blue on top is created by something called “structural colour” - i.e. it’s not really there. When the tiny scales of the wings are removed and observed under a microscope you can actually see they are white.
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