Many feathers are colored by a combination of these features. Like paints, pigments are chemical compounds that absorb certain wavelengths of light while reflecting others. The colors you see are those reflected back.
Feathers colored by pigments range from crow black to canary yellow and cardinal red.
Cardinal feathers stay red when you crush them or dunk them in water. Many colors, such as blue, are a result of feather structure. Natural white light is a blend of many different wavelengths - each with its own characteristic color. When light hits these feathers, it hits microscopic structures on the feather that act as prisms to bend, scatter, and reflect a color. No blue pigment is known in birds.