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38 results for “plumage color”
Sex-specific relationships between urbanization, parasitism, and plumage coloration in house finches
Historically, studies of condition-dependent signals in animals have been male-centric, but recent work suggests that female ornaments can also communicate individual quality (e.g., disease state, fecundity). There also has been a surge of interest in how urbanization alters signaling traits, but we know little about if and how cities affect signal expression in female animals. We present data of carotenoid-based plumage coloration and coccidian (Isospora spp.) parasite burden in desert and city populations of house finches Haemorhous mexicanus to examine links between urbanization, health state, and feather pigmentation in males and females. In earlier work, we showed that male house finches are less colorful and more parasitized in the city, and we again detected such patterns in this study for males; however, urban females were less colorful, but not more parasitized, than rural females. Moreover, contrary to rural populations, we found that urban birds (regardless of sex) with larger patches of carotenoid coloration were also more heavily infected with coccidia. These results show that urban environments can disrupt condition-dependent color expression and highlight the need for more studies on how cities affect disease and signaling traits in both male and female animals.
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>
Haemosporidian parasites and incubation period influence plumage coloration in tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae)
<p><span>Birds are visually oriented and use their plumage coloration as an important signaling trait in social communication. Males and females may have different patterns of plumage coloration, a phenomenon known as sexual dichromatism. Because males tend to have more complex plumages, sexual dichromatism is usually attributed to female choice. However, plumage coloration is partly condition-dependent, therefore other selective pressures affecting individuals' success may also drive the evolution of this trait. Here we used tanagers to study the relationships between dichromatism and plumage coloration complexity with parasitism by haemosporidians, investment in reproduction, and life-history traits. We screened blood samples from 2849 birds belonging to 52 tanager species for detecting haemosporidian parasites. We used publicly available data for plumage coloration, bird phylogeny, and life-history traits to run models with plumage dichromatism and complexity in males and females. We found that dichromatism was more pronounced in bird species with higher prevalence of haemosporidian parasites. Lastly, females with high plumage coloration complexity were associated with a longer incubation period. Our results indicate an association between haemosporidian parasites and plumage coloration suggesting that parasites impact mechanisms of both sexual selections, increasing differences between sexes, and social (non-sexual) selection, driving females to develop more complex colorations. </span></p>
Complex plumages spur rapid color diversification in kingfishers (Aves: Alcedinidae)
<p>Colorful signals in nature provide some of the most stunning examples of rapid phenotypic evolution. Yet, studying color pattern evolution has been historically difficult owing to differences in perceptual ability of humans and analytical challenges with studying how complex color patterns evolve. Island systems can provide a natural laboratory for testing hypotheses about the direction and magnitude (i.e., rate) of phenotypic change. A recent study of bird coloration found that the plumages of island species are darker and less complex than continental species. Whether such shifts in plumage complexity are associated with increased rates of color evolution on islands remains unknown. Here, we use geometric morphometric techniques to test the hypothesis that plumage complexity and island insularity interact to influence color diversity in a species-rich and cosmopolitan clade of colorful birds—kingfishers (Aves: Alcedinidae). In particular, we test three predictions: i) plumage complexity enhances interspecific rates of color evolution, ii) plumage complexity is lower on islands, and iii) rates of plumage color evolution are higher within island systems. Our results show that more complex plumages result in more diverse colors among species and that island species have higher rates of color evolution. Importantly, we found that island species did not have more complex plumages than their continental relatives. Thus, complexity may be a key innovation that facilitates response to relaxed (or divergent) selection pressures on islands. Lack of strong support for competition-driving rates of evolution along different color axes hints at an allopatric model of color evolution in which species adapt to local conditions on different islands. This study demonstrates how a truly multivariate treatment of color data can reveal evolutionary patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.</p>
Hummingbird Plumage Color Diversity Exceeds the Gamut of all other Birds
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Haemosporidian parasites and incubation period influence plumage coloration in tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae)
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Complex plumages spur rapid color diversification in kingfishers (Aves: Alcedinidae)
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Data from: Do metal mines and their runoff affect plumage color? A regional scale study of streak-backed orioles in south-central Mexico
<p>Metal mining causes serious ecological disturbance, due partly to heavy metal (HM) pollution that can accumulate at mining sites themselves and be dispersed downstream as runoff. Plumage coloration is important in birds' social and ecological interactions and sensitive to environmental stressors, and several local-scale studies have found decreased carotenoid-based plumage and/or increased melanin-based plumage in wild birds exposed to HM pollution. We investigated regional-scale effects of proximity to mines and their downstream rivers as a proxy of exposure to HM-contaminated mining waste on plumage coloration in streak-backed orioles (<em>Icterus pustulatus</em>) in south-central Mexico. We measured the plumage color of museum skins using reflectance spectrometry and digital photography, then used geographic information systems to estimate each specimen's distance from the nearest mining concession and river and determine whether that river's watershed contained mines. Proximity to mines and their downstream rivers was related to ventral (but not dorsal) carotenoid-based coloration; birds collected farther from mines had more vivid yellow-orange breast plumage, and belly plumage was more vivid and redder with increasing distance from rivers with upstream mines. Breast background reflectance unexpectedly decreased with mine distance and was higher among birds whose nearest river had mines upstream. The area (but not reflectance) of melanin-based plumage was also related to mines. The area of dark back streaks decreased with mine distance, while the bib patch was smaller among birds presumably more exposed to mining waste. While some of these results are consistent with predicted effects of HM pollution on plumage, most were not straightforward, and effects differed among plumage patches and variables. Further investigation is needed to understand the direct (e.g., toxicity, oxidative stress) and/or indirect (e.g., decreased availability of carotenoid-rich food) mechanisms responsible and their individual, population, and community-level implications. </p>
The genetic basis of plumage coloration and elevation adaptation in a clade of recently diverged alpine and arctic songbirds
<p>Trait genetic architecture plays an important role in the probability that variation in that trait leads to divergence and speciation. In some cases, speciation may be driven by the generation of novel phenotypes through the recombination of genes associated with traits that are important for local adaptation or sexual selection. Here, we investigate the genetic basis of three plumage color traits, and one ecological trait, breeding elevation, in a recent avian radiation, the North American rosy-finches (<em>Leucosticte</em> spp.). We identify unique genomic regions associated with each trait and highlight 11 candidate genes. Among these are well-characterized melanogenesis genes, including Mitf and Tyrp1, and previously reported hypoxia-related genes including Egln1. Additionally, we use mitochondrial data to date the divergence of rosy-finch clades which appear to have diverged within the past 250 ky. Given the low levels of genome-wide differentiation among rosy-finch taxa, and evidence for extensive introgression in North America, plumage coloration and adaptation to high elevations have likely played large roles in generating the observed patterns of lineage divergence. The relative independence of these candidate regions across the genome suggests that recombination might have led to multiple phenotypes, and subsequent rosy-finch speciation, over short periods of time.</p>
Data from: Carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration is associated with reduced male care in passerine birds
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Hidden white and black feather layers enhance plumage coloration in tanagers and other songbirds
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The genetic basis of plumage coloration and elevation adaptation in a clade of recently diverged alpine and arctic songbirds
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Data from: Do metal mines and their runoff affect plumage color? A regional scale study of streak-backed orioles in south-central Mexico
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Differential effects of foraging strategies on carotenoid-derived plumage color and individual quality in stripe-tailed yellow finches
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The macroevolutionary consequences of the association between frugivory and carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration in passerine birds
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Carotenoid- but not melanin-based plumage coloration is negatively related to metal exposure and proximity to the road in an urban songbird
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Extensive hybridization reveals multiple coloration genes underlying a complex plumage phenotype
<p>Coloration is an important target of both natural and sexual selection. Discovering the genetic basis of colour differences can help us to understand how this visually striking phenotype evolves. Hybridizing taxa with both clear colour differences and shallow genomic divergences are unusually tractable for associating coloration phenotypes with their causal genotypes. Here, we leverage the extensive admixture between two common North American woodpeckers—yellow-shafted and red-shafted flickers—to identify the genomic bases of six distinct plumage patches involving both melanin and carotenoid pigments. Comparisons between flickers across ~7.25 million genome-wide SNPs show that these two forms differ at only a small proportion of the genome (mean FST = 0.008). Within the few highly differentiated genomic regions, we identify 368 SNPs significantly associated with four of the six plumage patches. These SNPs are linked to multiple genes known to be involved in melanin and carotenoid pigmentation. For example, a gene (<em>CYP2J19</em>) known to cause yellow to red colour transitions in other birds is strongly associated with the yellow versus red differences in the wings and tail feathers of these flickers. Additionally, our analyses suggest novel links between known melanin genes and carotenoid coloration. Our finding of patch-specific control of plumage coloration adds to the growing body of literature suggesting colour diversity in animals could be created through selection acting on novel combinations of coloration genes.</p>
Data from: Quantitative genetics of plumage color: lifetime effects of early nest environment on a colorful sexual signal
Phenotypic differences among individuals are often linked to differential survival and mating success. Quantifying the relative influence of genetic and environmental variation on phenotype allows evolutionary biologists to make predictions about the potential for a given trait to respond to selection and various aspects of environmental variation. In particular, the environment individuals experience during early development can have lasting effects on phenotype later in life. Here, we used a natural full-sib/half-sib design as well as within-individual longitudinal analyses to examine genetic and various environmental influences on plumage color. We find that variation in melanin-based plumage color – a trait known to influence mating success in adult North American barn swallows (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) – is influenced by both genetics and aspects of the developmental environment, including variation due to the maternal phenotype and the nest environment. Within individuals, nestling color is predictive of adult color. Accordingly, these early environmental influences are relevant to the sexually selected plumage color variation in adults. Early environmental conditions appear to have important lifelong implications for individual reproductive performance through sexual signal development in barn swallows. Our results indicate that feather color variation conveys information about developmental conditions and maternal care alleles to potential mates in North American barn swallows. Melanin-based colors are used for sexual signaling in many organisms, and our study suggests that these signals may be more sensitive to environmental variation than previously thought.
Data from: The relationship between plumage coloration and aggression in female tree swallows
<p>Intrasexual competition is an important selective force that can favor the evolution of honest signals of fighting ability. Research has focused predominantly on male birds, but many female birds also possess plumage ornaments that could mediate the outcome of competitive interactions. We examined the relationship between blue and white structural coloration and aggression in female tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor). Tree swallows are secondary cavity nesters and females show delayed plumage maturation which may be related to intense competition for nest sites. We compared plumage reflectance of second-year (SY) and after-second year (ASY) females, and within-individual changes in plumage reflectance of ASY females in two successive years. We assessed aggression by placing a caged SY female 2 m from the nest box of an ASY female and quantified the ASY female's response in relation to her own plumage coloration. We found substantial differences in plumage reflectance of SY and ASY females, but found that ASY females became greener with duller white coloration in the second year. This may be due to poor weather that made reproduction particularly costly in the first year of the study and suggests coloration is influenced by condition. We found no relationship between dorsal coloration and aggressiveness. Rather, brighter white females spent more time on their nest box and within 2 m of the intruder than females with dull breasts. Our findings suggest that brighter white ASY females may perceive a SY female as less of a threat or that there may be a trade-off associated with aggression and parental care that is related to white brightness.</p>
Losses of sexual dichromatism involve rapid changes in female plumage colors to match males in New World blackbirds
<p>Differences in coloration between the sexes (sexual dichromatism) can increase or decrease in a species through evolutionary changes in either or both sexes diverging or converging in their colors. Few previous studies, however, have examined the relative rates of such changes, particularly when dichromatism is lost. Using reflectance data from 37 species of the New World blackbird family (<em>Icteridae</em>), we compared evolutionary rates of plumage color change in males and females when dichromatism was either increasing (colors diverging) or decreasing (colors converging). Increases in dichromatism involved divergent changes in both sexes at approximately equal rates. Decreases in dichromatism, in contrast, involved changes in females to match male plumage colors that were significantly more rapid than any changes in males. Such dramatic changes in females show how selection can differ between the sexes. Moreover, these evolutionary patterns support the idea that losses of dimorphism involve genetic mechanisms that are already largely present in both sexes, whereas increases in dimorphism tend to involve the appearance of novel sex-specific traits, which evolve more slowly. Our results have broad implications for how sexual dimorphisms evolve.</p>
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