Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Lindsay Henderson
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
© 2018 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Animals use multiple signals to attract mates, including elaborate song, brightly coloured ornaments and physical displays. Female birds often prefer both elaborate male song and intense carotenoid-based plumage coloration. This could lead less visually ornamented males to increase song production to maximize their attractiveness to females. We tested this possibility in the highly social and non-territorial house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), in which females discriminate among males based on both song and on the intensity of red carotenoid-based plumage coloration. We manipulated male plumage coloration through carotenoid supplementation during moult, so that males were either red or yellow. Males were then housed under three social environments: (i) all red birds, (ii) all yellow birds or (iii) a mixture of red/yellow birds. We recorded song after presentation of a female. Red males produced more song than yellow males. But when yellow males were housed with red conspecifics, they produced more song relative to yellow males housed with equally unattractive yellow males. This study provides novel evidence that a male's plumage coloration and the plumage colour of his social competitors influence investment in song.
Author(s): Henderson LJ, Brazeal KR, Hahn TP
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Biology Letters
Year: 2018
Volume: 14
Issue: 7
Online publication date: 18/07/2018
Acceptance date: 20/06/2018
ISSN (print): 1744-9561
ISSN (electronic): 1744-957X
Publisher: Royal Society Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0300
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0300
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
