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45 results for “bird coloration”
Microplastic Abundance, Shape, and Color in Passerines Captured at Rushton Woods Preserve Bird Banding Station in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA, April-September 2024
Fecal samples were collected from 5 species of passerine birds between April and September 2024 at the Rushton Woods Preserve Bird Banding Station. Samples were chemically digested and filtered for the purpose of extracting, quantifying, and describing microplastics.
Hummingbird Plumage Color Diversity Exceeds the Gamut of all other Birds
<p>A color gamut quantitatively describes the diversity of a taxon's integumentary coloration as seen by a specific organismal visual system. We estimated the plumage color gamut of hummingbirds (Trochilidae), a family known for its diverse barbule structural coloration, using a tetrahedral avian color stimulus space and spectra from a taxonomically diverse sample of 114 species. The spectra sampled occupied 34.2% of the total diversity of colors perceivable by hummingbirds, which suggests constraints on their plumage color production. However, the size of the hummingbird color gamut is equivalent or greater than the previous estimate of the gamut for all birds, making hummingbirds the most diversely colored family of birds known. Using one model of avian visual systems, our new data for hummingbirds increases the avian color gamut by 56%. Our results demonstrate that barbule structural color is the most versatile plumage coloration mechanism, achieving unique highly saturated colors with multi-peak reflectance.</p>
Hummingbird Plumage Color Diversity Exceeds the Gamut of all other Birds
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Data from: Fledging mass is color morph specific and affects local recruitment in a wild bird
Early life conditions may have long-lasting effects on life history. In color polymorphic species, morph-specific sensitivity to environmental conditions may lead to differential fitness. In tawny owl (Strix aluco) pheomelanin-based color polymorphism is expected to be maintained because the brown morph has higher adult fitness in warmer environments, while selection favors the grey morph under colder conditions. Here we investigate body mass at fledging and its consequences until adulthood in a population at the species' cold range margin. Using 40 years of data (1979-2017), we show that brown pairs, which mainly produce brown offspring consistent with a one-locus-two-alleles inheritance model, consistently raised heavier offspring than mixed pairs (grey-brown) and grey pairs. Offspring mass declined seasonally, except among offspring raised by brown pairs. Brown offspring could be heavier due to morph-specific parental care and/or offspring growth. Furthermore, mass at fledging is associated with fitness: the probability of local recruitment into the breeding population increased with higher mass at fledging, especially in mild winters and favorable food conditions, although recruitment is not morph-specific. Fledgling mass thus provides a fitness benefit in terms of recruitment probability that is modulated by environmental factors, which appear to level off any direct morph-specific recruitment benefits.
Rethinking Gloger's Rule: climate, light environments and color in a large family of tropical birds (Furnariidae)
Ecogeographic rules provide a framework within which to test evolutionary hypotheses of adaptation. Gloger's rule predicts endothermic animals should have darker colors in warm and rainy climates. This rule also predicts animals should be redder in warm and dry climates, the so-called "complex Gloger's rule." Empirical studies frequently demonstrate that animals are darker in cool and wet rather than warm and wet climates. Further, sensory ecology predicts that, to enhance crypsis, animals should be darker in darker light environments. We aimed to disentangle the effects of climate and light environments on plumage brightness and redness in the large Neotropical passerine family Furnariidae. Birds in cooler and rainier climates had darker plumage, even after controlling for habitat type. Birds in darker habitats had darker plumage, even after controlling for climate. The effects of temperature and brightness interact so that the negative effect of precipitation on brightness is strongest in cool temperatures. Finally, birds tended to be redder in warm and dry habitats but also, surprisingly, in cool and wet locales. We suggest Gloger's rule results from complementary selective pressures arising from myriad ecological factors, including crypsis, thermoregulation, parasite deterrence and resistance to feather abrasion.
Data for: Preening correlates with lower feather bacteria abundance but not feather coloration in a lek-breeding bird
<p>Feathers are structures unique to birds that serve important functions such as flight, thermoregulation, and communication. Bacteria that live on the feathers, particularly ones that can break down keratin, have the potential to damage feathers and disrupt their use in communication. We predicted that birds could behaviorally manage their feather bacterial abundances by preening their feathers. We also predicted that individuals with lower feather bacterial abundances would have brighter and more colorful feathers. To test these predictions, we measured the amount of time individuals in a colony of captive Indian peafowl (<em>Pavo cristatus</em>) spent preening their feathers. We also collected feathers to determine bacteria abundance on the feather surface and to measure feather coloration. We found that birds had lower feather bacteria levels when they spent more time preening their own feathers, but only in female birds. We also found that bacteria abundances were not correlated with any feather color variables we measured. These results suggest that birds can manage feather bacterial abundances by preening but feather bacteria may not influence feather coloration in this species.</p>
Evolution of female colors in birds: The role of female cost of reproduction and paternal care
<p><span>Female ornamentation is frequently observed in animal species and is sometimes found as more evolutionarily labile than male ornamentation. A complex array of factors may explain its presence and variation. Here we assessed the role of female cost of reproduction and paternal care. Both factors have been pinpointed as important by theoretical studies but have not been investigated yet in detail at the interspecific level. We worked on 133 species of North temperate Passeriformes bird species for which both the clutch volume – here taken as the proxy of female cost of reproduction – and the amount of paternal care are relatively well known. Using spectrometry, we measured the whole-body colored plumage patches and quantified three metrics corresponding to brightness (i.e. achromatic component), color chromaticity (i.e. intensity), and color volume (i.e. diversity). We found a strong association between male and female color metrics. Controlling for this association, we found additional small but detectable effects of both cost of reproduction and paternal care. First, females of species with more paternal care were slightly brighter. Second, the interaction between the level of paternal care and egg volume was correlated with female color intensity: females with more paternal care tended to be more chromatic, only when their investment in reproduction was low. Together these results suggest that female cost of reproduction and paternal care are part of the multiple factors explaining variation of female coloration, besides the strong covariation between male and female coloration.</span></p>
Colorful traits in female birds relate to individual condition, reproductive performance, and male mate preferences: A meta-analytic approach dataset
<p>Colorful traits in females are suggested to have evolved and be maintained by sexual selection. Although several studies have evaluated this idea, support is still equivocal. <span><span>Evidence has been compiled in reviews, and a handful of quantitative synthesis have explored evidence of the link between condition and specific color traits in males and females. However, understanding the potential function of females' colorful traits in sexual communication has not been the primary focus of any of those previous studies</span></span><span>. </span>Here, using a meta-analytic approach, we find that evidence from empirical studies in birds supports the idea that colorful female ornaments are positively associated with residual mass and immune response, clutch size, and male-mate preferences. Hence, colorful traits in female birds likely evolved and are maintained by sexual selection.</p>
Estimating the distribution of carotenoid coloration in skin and integumentary structures of birds and extinct dinosaurs
<p>Carotenoids are pigments responsible for most bright yellow, red, and orange hues in birds. Their distribution has been investigated in avian plumage, but the evolution of their expression in skin and other integumentary structures has not been approached in detail. Here, we investigate the expression of carotenoid-consistent coloration across tissue types in all extant, non-passerine species (n= 4,022) and archelosaur outgroups in a phylogenetic framework. We collect dietary data for a subset of birds and investigate how dietary carotenoid intake may relate to carotenoid expression in various tissues. We find that carotenoid-consistent expression in skin or non-plumage keratin has a 50 percent probability of being present in the most recent common ancestor of Archosauria. Skin expression has a similar probability at the base of the avian crown clade, but plumage expression is unambiguously absent in that ancestor and shows hundreds of independent gains within non-passerine neognaths, consistent with previous studies. Although our data do not support a strict sequence of tissue expression in non-passerine birds, we find support that expression of carotenoid-consistent color in non-plumage integument structures might evolve in a correlated manner and feathers are rarely the only region of expression. Taxa with diets high in carotenoid content also show expression in more body regions and tissue types. Our results may inform targeted assays for carotenoids in tissues other than feathers, and expectations of these pigments in non-avian dinosaurs. In extinct groups, bare-skin regions and the rhamphotheca, especially in species with diets rich in plants, may express these pigments, which are not expected in feathers or feather homologues.</p>
Data from: Fledging mass is color morph specific and affects local recruitment in a wild bird
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Data from: Carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration is associated with reduced male care in passerine birds
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Data for: Preening correlates with lower feather bacteria abundance but not feather coloration in a lek-breeding bird
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Estimating the distribution of carotenoid coloration in skin and integumentary structures of birds and extinct dinosaurs
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Illustrations of handbook of the birds of the world: Datasets of RGB values and color classification of birds
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Evolution of female colors in birds: The role of female cost of reproduction and paternal care
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Colorful traits in female birds relate to individual condition, reproductive performance, and male mate preferences: A meta-analytic approach dataset
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Rethinking Gloger’s Rule: climate, light environments and color in a large family of tropical birds (Furnariidae)
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The macroevolutionary consequences of the association between frugivory and carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration in passerine birds
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Data from: A reliable technique to quantify the individual variability of iridescent coloration in birds
The study of iridescent coloration in birds emerged only recently, mainly due to the difficulty inherent in quantifying its directionality. Directionality restrains color perception to a limited angle and thereby causes drastic changes in brightness when an animal is in motion. Although a versatile goniometer for quantifying iridescent coloration has been developed recently, so far, it has only been applied to measuring the highly directional iridescent coloration in a hummingbird species. Thus, the reliability of the goniometer for species displaying more common and less directional iridescent coloration has yet to be evaluated. Additionally, two important methodological aspects remain to be assessed before this apparatus can be used confidently: 1) whether directionality, which could be subject to sexual selection, can be quantified in a repeatable way; and 2) whether the apparatus gives more precise and accurate measurements than a less complex traditional method. Using feathers collected from 271 male tree swallows Tachycineta bicolor over two years, we found that the goniometer provided repeatable measurements of directionality across individuals and across three body regions, namely the crown, mantle and rump. The apparatus was also more repeatable than a traditional method involving a bifurcated probe and reduced a brightness bias associated with individual differences in barbule tilt. We strongly encourage researchers to invest in this methodological change considering the multiple advantages demonstrated and to quantify the directionality of iridescent coloration as to unveil its role in signaling and sexual selection.
Data from: Poison frog colors are honest signals of toxicity, particularly for bird predators
Antipredator defenses and warning signals typically evolve in concert. However, the extensive variation across taxa in both these components of predator deterrence, and the relationship between them, are poorly understood. Here we test whether there is a predictive relationship between visual conspicuousness and toxicity levels across 10 populations of the color polymorphic strawberry poison frog, Dendrobates pumilio. Using a mouse-based toxicity assay, we find extreme variation in toxicity between frog populations. This variation is significantly positively correlated with frog coloration brightness, a viewer-independent measure of visual conspicuousness (i.e. total reflectance flux). We also examine conspicuousness from the view of three potential predator taxa, as well as conspecific frogs, using taxon-specific visual detection models and three natural background substrates. We find very strong positive relationships between frog toxicity and conspicuousness for bird-specific perceptual models. Weaker but still positive correlations are found for crab and D. pumilio conspecific visual perception, while frog coloration as viewed by snakes is not related to toxicity. These results suggest that poison frog colors can be honest signals of prey unpalatability to predators, and that birds in particular may exert selection on aposematic signal design.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.