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1.
Juan A. Amat Miguel A. Rendón Juan Garrido-Fernández Araceli Garrido Manuel Rendón-Martos Antonio Pérez-Gálvez 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2011,65(4):665-673
It was long thought that the colour of bird feathers does not change after plumage moult. However, there is increasing evidence
that the colour of feathers may change due to abrasion, photochemical change and staining, either accidental or deliberate.
The coloration of plumage due to deliberate staining, i.e. with cosmetic purposes, may help individuals to communicate their
quality to conspecifics. The presence of carotenoids in preen oils has been previously only suggested, and here we confirm
for the first time its presence in such oils. Moreover, the carotenoids in the uropygial secretions were the same specific
pigments found in feathers. We show not only that the colour of feathers of greater flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus became more colourful due to the application of carotenoids from uropygial secretions over the plumage but also that the
feathers became more colourful with the quantity of pigments applied over them, thus providing evidence of cosmetic coloration.
Flamingos used uropygial secretions as cosmetic much more frequently during periods when they were displaying in groups than
during the rest of the year, suggesting that the primary function of cosmetic coloration is mate choice. Individuals with
more colourful plumage initiated nesting earlier. There was a correlation between plumage coloration before and after removal
of uropygial secretions from feathers’ surfaces, suggesting that the use of these pigmented secretions may function as a signal
amplifier by increasing the perceptibility of plumage colour, and hence of individual quality. As the cosmetic coloration
strengthens signal intensity by reinforcing base-plumage colour, its use may help to the understanding of selection for signal
efficacy by making interindividual differences more apparent. 相似文献
2.
R.A. Costa T. Eeva C. Eira J. Vaqueiro P. Medina J.V. Vingada 《Chemistry and Ecology》2014,30(3):206-215
Passerine species have been increasingly used as monitors of metal pollution, especially by making use of non-destructive indicators of bird exposure, such as collecting feathers, faeces or blood. During this study, mercury concentrations were determined in feathers, faeces and blood of nestling great tits (Parus major) in industrial (a paper mill) and rural sites on the west coast of Portugal. The aim of this study was to compare the level of mercury in both areas over the study period, as indicated by nestlings’ mercury levels, while assessing possible contamination effects on the breeding performance and health status of great tits. Over the years, feathers showed a significant annual decrease in mercury contamination in the study area. Blood analyses also revealed a significant annual decrease in mercury concentrations, but no significant differences were detected between areas. Faeces data showed no significant difference between years or areas. We found no direct influence of mercury levels on nestling health status or great tit breeding performance. 相似文献
3.
Yili Li Ke Gao Bu Duo Guoshuai Zhang Zhiyuan Cong Yan Gao Jianjie Fu Aiqian Zhang Guibin Jiang 《Environmental geochemistry and health》2018,40(5):1877-1886
Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are ubiquitous in the environment. They are prone to accumulate in organisms and have raised public attention in recent decades. Feather samples have been successfully applied as nondestructive indicators for several contaminants. However, a sophisticated analytical method for determining PFAAs in feathers is still lacking. In the present study, a series of conditions, such as the use of the solid-phase extraction cartridge type and extraction/digestion methods, were optimized for the analysis of 13 PFAAs in feathers. According to the spiked recoveries, a weak-anion exchange cartridge was chosen and the methanol was selected as the extraction solvent. In the present study, an optimized pretreatment procedure combined with high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometric (HPLC–ESI–MS/MS) method was established for the determination of PFAAs in feathers. The recoveries and method detection limits of the PFAAs ranged from 71 to 120% and 0.16 to 0.54 ng/g, respectively. Finally, 13 PFAAs in four accipiter feather samples from Nam Co Basin, Tibetan Plateau, were analyzed, indicating that PFOS was the predominant PFAA in accipiter feathers, with an average of 4.67 ng/g, followed by the short-chain PFAAs, PFBS and PFBA, with averages of 1.91 and 1.39 ng/g, respectively. These results partly indicated the current situation of PFAA pollution in the Nam Co Basin, especially the existence of short-chain PFAAs in this region. 相似文献
4.
Variations in mercury contamination of ecosystems were assessed among areas of northeast Greece by sampling and analysing feathers of White Stork chicks. Mercury concentrations in stork chick feathers were highest in an area known to be affected by riverborne mercury pollution, and were lowest in an inland area away from rivers or lakes. Although regurgitated pellets indicated a predominantly terrestrial diet among White Stork adults, variation in mercury concentrations among localities seemed to relate to pollution of aquatic rather than terrestrial foods of storks. Toxic thresholds of mercury in this species are unknown, but the highest concentrations, observed in chicks from the Axios Delta (up to 4.1 μg.g‐1 in feathers) were well above levels having toxic effects in gamebirds. Mercury concentrations in chick feathers increased slightly with chick age and with brood size, but these trends were small by comparison with variations among localities. 相似文献
5.
Female preference for apparently symmetrical male sexual ornaments in the barn swallow Hirundo rustica 总被引:4,自引:0,他引:4
Anders Pape Møller 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1993,32(6):371-376
Summary The outermost tail feathers of barn swallows Hirundo rustica apparently reliably signal the quality of males, because individuals with the longest tails have the lowest degree of fluctuating asymmetry (random deviations from symmetry in the otherwise symmetrical tail trait) despite the size of their secondary sexual character. I experimentally tested whether females preferred males with symmetrical tails without altering the aerodynamic properties of birds by painting the tips of the outermost tail feathers with white or black correction fluid. Unmated males were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: (i) asymmetrical tails, where the outermost 20 mm of one tail feather was painted white and the other black; (ii) symmetrical tails where the outermost 10 mm of both tail feathers was painted white (symmetric I); (iii) symmetrical tails where the outermost 20 mm of both tail feathers was painted white (symmetric II); or (iv) controls where the outermost 20 mm of both tail feathers was painted black. The experimental treatment affected the duration of the premating period since it took longer for asymmetrical males to acquire a mate than for either group of symmetrical males or control males. This gave rise to a delayed start of laying among males with apparently asymmetrical tails. The seasonal production of fledglings therefore decreased from control males through males with either symmetrical treatment to males with the asymmetrical treatment. Females therefore pay direct attention to the level of fluctuating asymmetry in secondary sexual characters even when the asymmetry does not affect the aerodynamic properties of males. 相似文献
6.
Matthew R. Evans Thais L. F. Martins Michael P. Haley 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1995,37(1):15-23
Recent work on fluctuating asymmetry has suggested that ornaments should have higher levels of fluctuating asymmetry than (1) non-ornaments and (2) homologous structures in the non-ornamented sex. In addition, as both ornament size and symmetry should increase with individual quality there should be a tendency for ornament symmetry to increase with ornament size. In non-ornaments, a U-shaped relationship between symmetry and size is expected, with the individuals at the extremes being more asymmetrical than individuals around the optimum. We tested these predictions in the red-billed streamertail (Trochilus polytmus), a sexually dimorphic endemic Jamaican hummingbird. The lengths of four bilaterally symmetrical traits (first and second outermost tail feathers, tarsi and wings) in 43 adult males and 42 females were measured. The second outermost tail feathers of adult males (which are elongated into streamers) were absolutely but not relatively more asymmetrical than non-ornaments (including the homologous feathers in females). When character size was controlled for, wings were shown to be relatively more symmetrical than other traits. Symmetry did not increase with increasing trait size in any of the morphological traits measured. There was a U-shaped relationship between asymmetry and trait size for four traits (adult male streamers, adult male wings and female outer tail feathers). These results do not support any of the predictions made by fluctuating asymmetry hypotheses and suggest that stabilising selection may act on ornaments as well as non-ornaments. These predictions have been supported in swallows and peafowl but not in sunbirds; this may be due to differences in female perception of tail ornaments. Perhaps male tails do not convey information about quality in some species, or there may be inter-specific differences in the relative costs of tail ornaments and the benefit of marginal increases in tail length and symmetry. 相似文献
7.
Petra Quillfeldt Leandro Bugoni Rona A. R. McGill Juan F. Masello Robert W. Furness 《Marine Biology》2008,155(6):593-598
Stable isotopes of growing feathers and blood both represent assimilated diet, and both tissues are used to study the diet
and foraging distribution of marine and terrestrial birds. Although most studies have assumed that both tissues represent
a difference of one trophic level to diet, the enrichment factors of blood and feathers may differ, especially where endogenous
reserves are used as precursors during feather synthesis. In this study, we compare carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of
blood and simultaneously growing feathers of five species of Procellariiformes, representing five genera, different geographical
regions and different life stages (chicks and adults). In all species, feathers were enriched in 15N and 13C compared with blood. Isotopic values of carbon and nitrogen were correlated in different tissues growing simultaneously
for most species analyzed, suggesting that mathematical corrections could be used to compare different tissues. Our results
imply that more care needs to be taken when comparing stable isotope signatures across studies assuming different tissues
are equivalent indicators of trophic ecology. 相似文献
8.
Feathers from carcasses of the Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor), which had died after ingesting cyanobacterial toxins (cyanotoxins) contained between 0.02 and 30.0?µg microcystin-LR equivalents per gram of feather according to HPLC and ELISA analysis of feather extracts. Anatoxin-a was detected less frequently in the Lesser Flamingo feathers, up to 0.8?µg anatoxin-a per gram of feather being recorded. When feathers from different body regions were analysed and compared for microcystins and anatoxin-a, wing feathers were found to contain the highest concentrations of these cyanotoxins, the order of concentration and frequency of analytical detection being wing?>?breast?>?head. Consistent with the presence of the microcystins and anatoxin-a in gut contents and the livers of the dead birds and negligible in vitro adsorption to feathers, the cyanotoxins associated with the feathers of the dead wild flamingos are inferred to be primarily of dietary origin. 相似文献
9.
Alice Carravieri Paco Bustamante Carine Churlaud Aymeric Fromant Yves Cherel 《Marine Biology》2014,161(4):963-968
One major limitation in the use of body feathers of seabirds as a monitoring tool of the trophic structure and contamination levels of marine ecosystems is the degree of heterogeneity in feather chemical composition within individuals. Here, we tested the hypothesis that moulting patterns drive body feather heterogeneity, with synchronous moult minimizing within-individual variations, in contrast to asynchronous feather growth. Chicks of white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis (representative of bird chicks) and adults of king penguins Aptenodytes patagonicus (representative of adult penguins) that moult their body feathers synchronously showed very low within-individual variations in their feather δ13C and δ15N values and mercury (Hg) concentrations. By contrast, body feathers of adults of Antarctic prions Pachyptila desolata (representative of adult seabirds with asynchronous feather growth during a protracted moult) presented much higher within-individual variances for the three parameters. These findings have three important implications for birds presenting a synchronous body moult. (1) They suggest that all body feathers from the same individual have identical δ13C and δ15N values and Hg content. (2) They predict negligible within-individual variations in the body feather values of other useful stable isotopes, such as δ2H and δ34S, as well as in the concentrations of other compounds that are deposited in the keratin structure. (3) Analysis of one or any number of pooled body feathers is equally representative of the individual. In conclusion, we recommend that long-term routine monitoring investigations focus on birds presenting synchronous rather than asynchronous moult of body feathers both in marine and terrestrial environments. This means targeting chicks rather than adults and, for seabirds, penguins rather than adults of flying species. 相似文献
10.
Joel W. McGlothlin Deborah L. Duffy Jessica L. Henry-Freeman Ellen D. Ketterson 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(9):1391-1399
Sexually selected traits that act as signals of quality often display some degree of condition dependence. In birds, condition
dependence of ornamental plumage is often mediated by production costs related to acquisition or allocation of dietary resources.
White plumage ornaments, however, have often been assumed to be inexpensive because their production requires neither pigment
nor specialized feather structure. In male dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), the size of a white patch on the tail contributes to attractiveness and mating success. Using captive males, we examined
the effects of diet quality on the size and brightness of the tail-white patch. After removing four tail feathers to induce
replacement, we maintained subjects on a subsistence (low-protein) or enriched (high-protein) diet while induced feathers
grew. Birds that received an enriched diet grew their feathers more quickly and grew larger, brighter white patches. Feather
growth rate was positively correlated with the increase in the size of the tail-white patch, a relationship that was stronger
in the subsistence diet group. However, within diet treatments, faster-grown feathers were slightly duller. Taken together,
these results suggest that variation in diet quality may lead to condition-dependent expression of tail white and that condition
dependence may be stronger in more stressful environments. We suggest a mechanism by which increased feather growth rate may
lead to an increase in the size of the tail-white patch and discuss potential trade-offs between signal size and brightness. 相似文献
11.
To determine whether stable isotope measurements of body feathers can be used to investigate the isotopic niche of moulting
(inter-nesting) adult seabirds, we examined the stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic composition of body feathers of breeding wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) from Crozet Islands, southern Indian Ocean. First we showed that the isotopic composition of body feathers was not significantly
different from that of wing feathers, being thus a safe alternative to flight feathers whose collection impairs the birds’
flying ability. Second, we looked at the variances in δ13C and δ15N values resulting from the isotopic measurement of a single feather, four different feathers, and a pool of four feathers
per bird, to delineate the best isotopic analytical procedure. A two-step protocol is proposed that allows investigating both
the intra- and inter-individual components of the niche width of the species. In a first step, isotopic measurements on a
single feather per bird are used to define isotopic specialist from isotopic generalist populations. In a second step and
for generalist populations only, measurements on additional (three) feathers per bird are used to delineate type A from type
B isotopic generalists (Bearhop et al. in J Anim Ecol 73:1007–1012, 2004). Third, from a biological point of view, our data
showed different moulting isotopic niches for adult males and females, and also within female wandering albatrosses. Since
the isotopic composition of body feathers in this species reflects that of wing feathers, our results suggest that, after
validation, body feathers have the potential for investigating the foraging ecology of other Procellariiforms and seabirds
during the poorly known inter-nesting period. 相似文献
12.
Of the three species of hirundine that breed sympatrically across the U.K., one, the barn swallow, has outer tail feathers
elongated into streamers, whereas the other two species, the house martin and the sand martin, do not. The tail streamer of
the barn swallow is regarded as a classic example of a sexually selected trait. Recent evidence, however, has suggested that
streamers may have evolved largely through natural selection for enhanced flight performance and increased maneuverability.
We tested the hypotheses that small streamers (1) increase performance in turning flight, but (2) decrease performance in
flight variables related to velocity. We manipulated the lengths of house martin outer tail feathers and measured changes
in their free-flight performance, using stereo-video to reconstruct the birds" three-dimensional flight paths. Five flight
variables were found to best describe individual variation in flight performance. Of these five, the three variables determining
maneuverability predicted that flight performance would be optimized by a 6- to 10-mm increase in the length of the outer
tail feathers. In contrast, for mean velocity and mean acceleration, extension of the outer tail feathers appears to have
a detrimental effect on flight performance. We suggest that the initial selection pressure for streamers in ancestral short-tailed
"barn swallows" was via natural selection for increased maneuverability. In addition, we propose that the benefits of increased
maneuverability have differed between hirundines in the past, such that the cost of increasing the length of the outer tail
feather has, to date, outweighed the benefits of doing so in streamerless hirundines.
Received: 14 February 2000 / Revised: 2 July 2000 / Accepted 18 July 2000 相似文献
13.
Manfred Niecke Andreas Krüger Peter Hauff Hermann Ellenberg Ralph Labes Susanne Niecke 《Environmental Sciences Europe》1998,10(1):3-14
With the aid of the Hamburg proton micro-probe, we examined the concentration of mercury in sea eagle feathers collected over the course of several decades in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern area. Based on the sites where these feathers were collected and the data of these findings, it is possible to get a differential picture of mercury contamination related both temporally and regionally to the mercurial pollution of seed mordants used agriculturally. We compared the concentrations found with a basic “geogenic” contamination which was also to be seen in the feather samples from the last century as detected in museum animal specimens. 相似文献
14.
Angelika Poesel Douglas A. Nelson H. Lisle Gibbs John W. Olesik 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2008,63(1):153-158
Tracking dispersal and migratory movements of animals over small and large spatial scales is a challenge. In birds, a promising
yet underutilized tool is the trace elemental composition of feathers. The elemental profile of a feather may reveal information
about the geographic origin of a bird provided that molting occurs on the breeding grounds and that elemental differences
exist between breeding areas. Here, we explore the use of trace elemental composition in body feathers of the Puget Sound
white-crowned sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys pugetensis as a tool (1) to discriminate among birds collected in four different song dialect populations along a 400-km stretch of
the Pacific Northwest coast and (2) to assign males singing nonlocal dialects in one population to potential natal populations.
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry detected 34 trace elements in sampled feathers and in a discriminant function
analysis seven of these elements differed among the four source populations. Half of the six nonlocal dialect singers, who
were likely to have immigrated into the focal population, were assigned to a population that matched their song dialect. Our
study suggests that feather microchemistry is a promising tool for identifying geographic origins of dispersing birds over
small geographic scales and in combination with other markers, such as song, may give insight into ecological and evolutionary
processes. 相似文献
15.
Many young birds on the Arctic tundra are confronted by a challenging task: they must molt their feathers and accumulate fat stores for the autumn migration before climatic conditions deteriorate. Our understanding of the costs and constraints associated with these stages is extremely limited. We investigated post-juvenal molt and premigratory fattening in free-ranging juvenile White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) on the Arctic tundra. We found evidence for trade-offs between premigratory fat accumulation and molt: heavily molting birds had significantly less fat. Birds increased the rate of fat accumulation as the season progressed, but we found no evidence of a similar increase in rate of molt. Using a controlled captive study to isolate the energetic costs of body feather replacement, we found no difference in fat or size-corrected mass of birds actively growing body feathers as compared to controls. Molting birds, however, consumed 17% more food than controls, suggesting a significant cost of body feather growth. Our results provide evidence of significant costs, constraints, and trade-offs associated with post-juvenal molt and premigratory fat accumulation in young Arctic birds. 相似文献
16.
We document mercury distribution in the tissues (kidney, liver, breast feathers and pectoral muscle) of a waterbird, the common coot (Fulica atra) from the Kani Barazan wetlands in north-western Iran. Bird samples were collected between November 2011 and January 2012, and mercury was assayed by using a Varian 220 atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Mean levels of mercury in kidney, liver, breast feathers and pectoral muscle were 0.13, 0.22, 0.20 and 0.09 μg/g, respectively. Mercury concentrations in tissues of F. atra were in the following order: liver>feather>kidney>pectoral muscle. The mercury level was significantly (one-way ANOVA, p<0.05) different between kidneys, livers, pectoral muscles and feathers in F. atra. Although mercury concentrations were higher for all tissues in female birds compared with males, significant (p<0.05) differences were observed in muscle only. 相似文献
17.
Anders Pape Møller 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1991,28(5):309-314
Summary Song flight, which is an aerial song display especially used by many open country bird species, is expected to be energetically very costly. Any morphological adaptation reducing the magnitude of this cost thus would be favored by selection. Male skylarks Alauda arvensis perform frequent song flights during a period of nearly half the year. Skylarks are sexually size dimorphic in most body traits, but particularly in wing area and wing span, which is absolutely and relatively larger in males than in females. Wing loadings, aspect ratios, and flight costs therefore are smaller in males than in females. I investigated the effect of wing area and aspect ratio on the duration of the song flights of individual birds by timing their duration before and after an experimental manipulation of wing area. Male skylarks were caught, ringed, and released (control I), had the tips of their wing feathers cut (control II), or had the tips of their wing feathers reduced by approximately 10 mm. There were no statistically significant differences in morphology or duration of songs between treatment groups before experimental treatments. However, males having the tips of their wing feathers reduced by ca. 10 mm performed only greatly abbreviated song flights. Original wing loading and aspect ratio also affected the duration of song flights, since male skylarks with low wing loadings and high aspect ratios performed longer song flights than did males with high wing loadings and low aspect ratios. This was the case both before and after experimental treatment. Wing area is suggested to reflect the ability of individual skylarks to invest in morphological structures allowing an increased song output. 相似文献
18.
Delayed plumage maturation in the orchard oriole (Icterus spurius): tests of winter adaptation hypotheses 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
David A. Enstrom 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》1992,30(1):35-42
Summary Explanations of delayed plumage maturation (DPM) in passerines have focused on potential breeding season advantages for non-definitive (subadult) plumage. In contrast, the molt constraint hypothesis (Rohwer and Butcher 1988) proposes that subadult plumage is a winter adaptation, increasing winter survivorship by decreasing intraspecific aggression (the winter status signaling hypothesis) or predation (the winter crypsis hypothesis). Under the molt constraint hypothesis, nondefinitive breeding plumage is non-adaptive, resulting from species-specific constraints on the number of feathers replaced during the pre-alternate (spring) molt. In studies conducted on an overwintering population of orchard orioles in Panama, I tested predictions of both the winter status signaling and molt constraint hypotheses. Contrary to predictions of winter status signaling, I found no evidence that subadult plumage reduces adult male aggression toward subadults. Agonistic encounters occurred at random with respect to plumage and the intensity of adult male/subadult male encounters was not lower than the intensity of encounters occurring within age classes. Contrary to the molt constraint hypothesis, I found no evidence that the number of feathers exchanged by subadults in their pre-alternate molt is the sole constraint on the development of subadult breeding plumage. The majority of feathers grown by molting subadult orioles during January and February were of non-definitive coloration. These results, together with results of earlier breeding season experiments which tested summer communication hypotheses for DPM in this species, suggest that subadult plumage in the orchard oriole may be non-adaptive and the result of constraints on plumage development. They also indicate, however, that the extent of the pre-alternate molt is not the sole source of that constraint. 相似文献
19.
We used a brood-size manipulation to test the effect of rearing environment on structural coloration of feathers grown by
eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) nestlings. Ultraviolet (UV)-blue structural coloration has been shown to be sexually selected in this species. Our experimental
design took advantage of the growth of UV-blue wing feathers in nestlings that are retained as part of the first nuptial plumage.
We cross-fostered nestlings to create enlarged and reduced broods with the purpose of manipulating parental feeding rates
and measured the effect on nestling growth and plumage coloration. Brood size influenced feeding rates to offspring, but the
effect varied with season. In general, male nestlings reared in reduced broods were fed more often, weighed more, and displayed
brighter structural plumage compared to nestlings reared in enlarged broods. Female nestlings appeared to experience less
adverse affects of brood enlargement, and we did not detect an effect of brood-size manipulation on the plumage coloration
of female nestlings. Measures of plumage coloration in both males and females, however, were correlated to hatching date and
nestling mass during feather development. These data provide empirical evidence that environmental quality can influence the
development of the blue structural coloration of feathers and that males may be more sensitive to environmental fluctuations
than females. 相似文献
20.
Tuul Sepp Marju Männiste Ants Kaasik Peeter Hõrak 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2014,68(7):1173-1181
Covariation of individual responses to different fear-eliciting situations is expected to manifest in general “fearfulness syndrome.” We tested for the existence of such a syndrome in wild-caught captive greenfinches. We assessed the propensity to give distress calls at handling, latency to feed at the presence of a predator image, and changes in locomotor activity in response to distress calls of conspecifics. Additionally, we measured the frequency of flapping flight movements against cage bars and tendency to damage tail feathers in captivity as indicators of the ability of birds to cope with captive conditions. As a proxy of neuroendocrine activity (an expected covariate of fearfulness), we measured the amount of stress hormone corticosterone deposited into feathers grown during captivity. All the behavioral traits were individually repeatable in time, but there were no correlations between them. Lack of the behavioral syndrome for fearfulness was also revealed by structural equation modelling. The findings of this experiment challenge the concept of a single internal variable responsible for fearfulness and support the proposed multidimensional nature of fear responses. 相似文献