diff --git a/skimage/filters/tests/test_thresholding.py b/skimage/filters/tests/test_thresholding.py
index 16682610..4c14b8b6 100644
--- a/skimage/filters/tests/test_thresholding.py
+++ b/skimage/filters/tests/test_thresholding.py
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 import numpy as np
-from numpy.testing import assert_equal, assert_almost_equal
+from numpy.testing import (assert_equal,
+                           assert_almost_equal,
+                           assert_raises)
 
 import skimage
 from skimage import data
@@ -162,6 +164,11 @@ def test_otsu_astro_image():
     with expected_warnings(['grayscale']):
         assert 109 < threshold_otsu(img) < 111
 
+
+def test_otsu_one_color_image():
+    img = np.ones((10, 10), dtype=np.uint8)
+    assert_raises(TypeError, threshold_otsu, img)
+
 def test_li_camera_image():
     camera = skimage.img_as_ubyte(data.camera())
     assert 63 < threshold_li(camera) < 65
diff --git a/skimage/filters/thresholding.py b/skimage/filters/thresholding.py
index f6a4ee1e..7f4aa7de 100644
--- a/skimage/filters/thresholding.py
+++ b/skimage/filters/thresholding.py
@@ -129,6 +129,12 @@ def threshold_otsu(image, nbins=256):
               "grayscale images; image shape {0} looks like an RGB image"
         warnings.warn(msg.format(image.shape))
 
+    # Check if the image is multi-colored or not
+    if image.min() == image.max():
+        raise TypeError("threshold_otsu is expected to work with images " \
+                        "having more than one color. The input image seems " \
+                        "to have just one color {0}.".format(image.min()))
+
     hist, bin_centers = histogram(image.ravel(), nbins)
     hist = hist.astype(float)