Colorful Crows

I was reading* that that the group of birds known as Paradisaeidae (birds-of-paradise) is very closely related to the family Corvidae (crows).

But how could that be? They’re so different. Birds of paradise are colorful, while crows are black.

Then the thought occurred to me. What if the lack of color in crows is not a property of the bird, but rather of m…