A team of French researchers has found that emotions can turn chicken faces red.

The French National Institute for Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Research noted that the color of chicken faces "turns varying shades of red based on their emotional state."

With significant effort in a imaging program, researchers captured images of 6 chickens from the "Sussex" breed, enabling the institute's team to distinguish varying degrees of redness in this type.

In one of the experiments, the institute's team observed that chicken faces turned red when they saw mealworms, deepened to crimson when faced with a negative situation such as confinement, for instance, and appeared lighter when in a relaxed state.

Based on these observations, the team isolated 13 chickens to acclimate them to human presence for five weeks.

Upon comparison with other chickens, the study found that the color of the faces of the group that underwent the experiment was lighter, reflecting a "state of calmness" in the presence of a person.

This study opens up new avenues for the research team, which aims to explore the link between chicken face blushing and other expressions such as the movement of feathers on their heads.