Drab female birds had more colorful evolution

Males weren’t the main players in sex differences in avian plumage

BIRDS OF A FEATHER  A male red-winged blackbird may be flashy-looking, but it’s the females of the species in blackbirds and grackles that have made the bigger difference in evolving such plumage diversity.

Mdf/wikimedia commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Color evolution among grackles and their kin is not about males showing off their fine feathers.