Abstract
Animals use diverse signal types (e.g. visual, auditory) to honestly advertise their genotypic and/or phenotypic quality to prospective mates or rivals. Behavioural displays and other dynamically updateable signals (e.g. songs, vibrations) can reliably reveal an individual’s quality in real-time, but it is unclear whether more fixed traits like feather colouration, which is often developed months before breeding, still reveal an individual’s quality at the time of signal use. To address this gap, we investigated if various indices of health and condition—including body condition (residual body mass), poxvirus infection, degree of habitat urbanization, and circulating levels of ketones, glucose, vitamins, and carotenoids—were related to the expression of male plumage colouration at the start of the spring breeding season in wild male House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), a species in which many studies have demonstrated a link between plumage redness and the health and condition of individuals at the time the feathers are grown in late summer and autumn. We found that, at the time of pair formation, plumage hue was correlated with body condition, such that redder males were in better condition (i.e. higher residual mass). Also, as in previous studies, we found that rural males had redder plumage; however, urban males had more saturated plumage. In sum, these results reveal that feather colouration developed long before breeding still can be indicative to choosy mates of a male’s current condition and suggest that females who prefer to mate with redder males may also gain proximate material benefits (e.g. better incubation provisioning) by mating with these individuals in good current condition.
Zusammenfassung
Zurück in die Zukunft: Verrät die zuvor entstandene Zierfärbung bei männlichen Hausgimpeln (Haemorhous mexicanus) deren Paarungsqualität zum Zeitpunkt der Paarbildung?
Tiere verwenden unterschiedliche Arten von Signalen (z. B. optische und akustische), um potenziellen Partnern oder Rivalen ihre genotypischen und/oder phänotypischen Qualitäten unverfälscht mitzuteilen. Verhaltensweisen und andere jederzeit aktualisierbare Signale (z. B. Gesänge, Vibrationen) können die Qualität eines Individuums zuverlässig und in Echtzeit anzeigen, aber es ist unklar, ob eher feste Merkmale wie die Federfärbung, die oft Monate vor der Fortpflanzung entwickelt wird, die Qualität eines Tieres zum Zeitpunkt des Einsatzes dieses Signals noch anzeigen. Um diese Lücke zu schließen, haben wir untersucht, ob verschiedene Merkmale für Gesundheit und Kondition—einschließlich Körperkondition (Restkörpergewicht), Pockenvirusinfektion, Grad der Verstädterung des Lebensraums und zirkulierender Keton-, Glukose-, Vitamin- und Carotinoidspiegel—zu Beginn der Frühjahrsbrutsaison mit der Ausprägung der männlichen Gefiederfärbung bei wildlebenden männlichen Hausgimpeln (Haemorhous mexicanus) in Zusammenhang stehen. Für diese Art ist in vielen Untersuchungen ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Gefiederfärbung und der Gesundheit und Kondition der Individuen zum Zeitpunkt des Federwachstums im Spätsommer und Herbst nachgewiesen worden. Wir stellten fest, dass die Farbe des Gefieders zum Zeitpunkt der Paarbildung mit der physischen Verfassung korrelierte, dass also rötlichere Männchen in besserer Kondition waren (d. h. eine höhere Körpermasse hatten). Wie schon in früheren Studien wurde auch hier festgestellt, dass die Männchen in ländlicheren Gegenden ein röteres Gefieder hatten, während die Männchen in der Stadt ein farb-satteres Gefieder aufwiesen. Zusammenfassend zeigen diese Ergebnisse, dass die Federfärbung, die sich lange vor dem Brüten entwickelt hat, wählerischen Partnern noch immer einen Hinweis auf die aktuelle Verfassung eines Männchens geben kann, und sie legen nahe, dass Weibchen, die sich lieber mit röteren Männchen paaren, auch direkte materielle Vorteile (z. B. eine bessere Brutpflege) davon haben, wenn sie sich mit diesen Individuen in guter Verfassung paaren.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Drs. Karen Sweazea and Emily Webb for their contributions to the project and manuscript, as well as the following undergraduates for assisting with the project: Olivia Nguyen, Dean Drake, Elise Crawford, Danielle Pais, Christian Rueda, Amanda Wrona, Preston Moskal, Mac Costarella, Jake Mitrius, and Alyssa Crow.
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Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Program, DEB-1832016, Kathryn DePinto, Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University.
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This study was financially supported by Barrett, The Honors College and the National Science Foundation under grant number DEB-1832016, Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Program (CAP LTER). The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
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DePinto, K.N., McGraw, K.J. Back to the future: does previously grown ornamental colouration in male House Finches reveal mate quality at the time of pair formation?. J Ornithol 163, 977–985 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-01997-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-01997-y