Evol Ecol Res 10: 559-574 (2008)     Full PDF if your library subscribes.

Correlated variation of colour between melanin and carotenoid pigmented plumage areas in great tits

Gergely Hegyi,1,2* Beáta Szigeti,1 Miklós Laczi,1 Marcel Eens2 and János Török1

1Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary and  2Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Campus Drie Eiken, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium

Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed.
e-mail: everest@ludens.elte.hu

ABSTRACT

Questions: Are carotenoid and melanin pigmented plumage colour signals independent traits? Is the correlated variation between the two traits condition-dependent and sexually selected?

Background: Previous studies suggested that carotenoid- and melanin-based traits provided different information, but did not assess their correlation or shared information content.

Data description: We recorded reflectance spectra of the black crown and yellow breast plumage of male and female great tits (Parus major) after the summer moult (2 years, 192 birds) and during the breeding season (3 years, 126 birds). We used the growth rate of tail feathers as an index of body condition during moult.

Search method: We ran common principal components analyses of crown and breast spectra to identify correlated variation in spectral elevation and spectral shape. We examined the consistency of the shared colour axes between autumn and spring. We used the autumn data to estimate the condition-dependence of the seasonally consistent shared colour axes. Finally, as a measure of sexual selection, we used the spring data to quantify assortative mating patterns in relation to correlated colour variation. We controlled for year- and age-related differences in all analyses.

Conclusions: More than 70% of spectral shape variation in the two plumage regions was correlated. The main directions of correlated variation were similar in autumn and spring. A main axis of spectral covariation reflected body condition during moult. The birds showed significant assortative mating for the same axis.

Keywords: carotenoid, condition dependence, good genes, melanin, multiple signals, Parus major, plumage colour, sexual selection.

DOWNLOAD A FREE, FULL PDF COPY
IF you are connected using the IP of a subscribing institution (library, laboratory, etc.)
or through its VPN.

 

        © 2008 Gergely Hegyi. All EER articles are copyrighted by their authors. All authors endorse, permit and license Evolutionary Ecology Ltd. to grant its subscribing institutions/libraries the copying privileges specified below without additional consideration or payment to them or to Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. These endorsements, in writing, are on file in the office of Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. Consult authors for permission to use any portion of their work in derivative works, compilations or to distribute their work in any commercial manner.

       Subscribing institutions/libraries may grant individuals the privilege of making a single copy of an EER article for non-commercial educational or non-commercial research purposes. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also use articles for non-commercial educational purposes by making any number of copies for course packs or course reserve collections. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also loan single copies of articles to non-commercial libraries for educational purposes.

       All copies of abstracts and articles must preserve their copyright notice without modification.