diff --git a/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py b/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py
index b1032f45091e..e4ff16cf9410 100755
--- a/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py
+++ b/lib/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.py
@@ -2209,7 +2209,7 @@ def add_collection3d(self, col, zs=0, zdir='z'):
 
         Axes.add_collection(self, col)
 
-    def scatter(self, xs, ys, zs=0, zdir='z', s=20, c='b', depthshade=True,
+    def scatter(self, xs, ys, zs=0, zdir='z', s=20, c=None, depthshade=True,
                 *args, **kwargs):
         '''
         Create a scatter plot.
@@ -2233,7 +2233,9 @@ def scatter(self, xs, ys, zs=0, zdir='z', s=20, c='b', depthshade=True,
                       that *c* should not be a single numeric RGB or RGBA
                       sequence because that is indistinguishable from an array
                       of values to be colormapped.  *c* can be a 2-D array in
-                      which the rows are RGB or RGBA, however.
+                      which the rows are RGB or RGBA, however, including the
+                      case of a single row to specify the same color for
+                      all points.
 
         *depthshade*
                       Whether or not to shade the scatter markers to give
@@ -2262,13 +2264,15 @@ def scatter(self, xs, ys, zs=0, zdir='z', s=20, c='b', depthshade=True,
 
         s = np.ma.ravel(s)  # This doesn't have to match x, y in size.
 
-        cstr = cbook.is_string_like(c) or cbook.is_sequence_of_strings(c)
-        if not cstr:
-            c = np.asanyarray(c)
-            if c.size == xs.size:
-                c = np.ma.ravel(c)
-
-        xs, ys, zs, s, c = cbook.delete_masked_points(xs, ys, zs, s, c)
+        if c is not None:
+            cstr = cbook.is_string_like(c) or cbook.is_sequence_of_strings(c)
+            if not cstr:
+                c = np.asanyarray(c)
+                if c.size == xs.size:
+                    c = np.ma.ravel(c)
+            xs, ys, zs, s, c = cbook.delete_masked_points(xs, ys, zs, s, c)
+        else:
+            xs, ys, zs, s = cbook.delete_masked_points(xs, ys, zs, s)
 
         patches = Axes.scatter(self, xs, ys, s=s, c=c, *args, **kwargs)
         if not cbook.iterable(zs):
diff --git a/lib/mpl_toolkits/tests/baseline_images/test_mplot3d/scatter3d_color.png b/lib/mpl_toolkits/tests/baseline_images/test_mplot3d/scatter3d_color.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1ded1b338850
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/mpl_toolkits/tests/baseline_images/test_mplot3d/scatter3d_color.png differ
diff --git a/lib/mpl_toolkits/tests/test_mplot3d.py b/lib/mpl_toolkits/tests/test_mplot3d.py
index 42718166d32d..5b8485f802b8 100644
--- a/lib/mpl_toolkits/tests/test_mplot3d.py
+++ b/lib/mpl_toolkits/tests/test_mplot3d.py
@@ -110,6 +110,17 @@ def test_scatter3d():
                c='b', marker='^')
 
 
+@image_comparison(baseline_images=['scatter3d_color'], remove_text=True,
+                  extensions=['png'])
+def test_scatter3d_color():
+    fig = plt.figure()
+    ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
+    ax.scatter(np.arange(10), np.arange(10), np.arange(10),
+               color='r', marker='o')
+    ax.scatter(np.arange(10, 20), np.arange(10, 20), np.arange(10, 20),
+               color='b', marker='s')
+
+
 @image_comparison(baseline_images=['surface3d'], remove_text=True)
 def test_surface3d():
     fig = plt.figure()