Barn swallow antipredator behavior covaries with melanic coloration and predicts survival

Costanzo, Alessandra; Romanò, Andrea; Ambrosini, Roberto; Parolini, Marco; Rubolini, Diego; Caprioli, Manuela; Corti, Margherita; Canova, Luca; Saino, Nicola

doi:10.1093/beheco/ary102

Cited by 9 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…First, Van den Brink and co-workers did not detect any relationship between behaviour and the reddish phaeomelanic coloration in both the Eurasian kestrel Falco tinnunculus (78) and the barn owl Tyto alba (45). However, redness was positively associated with antipredator behaviour in tawny owls Strix aluco (63) and barn swallows Hirundo rustica (21). As expected, our results show that reddish scops owl males show more reactive behaviour than more grey ones.…”

Section: Sense Of Covariation Between Colour Morph Behaviour and Corsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…Whatever the physiological mechanism behind, the expression of eumelanin and phaeomelanin colours are expected to be inversely related to other functional traits (22,23,25). So far, covariation between eumelanic colours and behaviour has been widely investigated in birds (reviewed in (7)), but only recently a few studies have considered covariation between phaeomelanic colours and behaviour, showing contradictory results (21,45,63,78). First, Van den Brink and co-workers did not detect any relationship between behaviour and the reddish phaeomelanic coloration in both the Eurasian kestrel Falco tinnunculus (78) and the barn owl Tyto alba (45).…”

Section: Sense Of Covariation Between Colour Morph Behaviour and Cormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In most species so far analysed both types of melanin have been found in the same feathers (18)(19)(20), although the bulk of studies about phenotypic integration either do not differentiate between eumelanin and phaeomelanin or just refer to the role of eumelanin (e.g. (7), but see (8,21)). This might be unfortunate because, based on the assumption that the triggering of eumelanogenesis is at the expenses of phaeomelanogenesis (7), phaeomelanin and eumelanin colours have contrary expectations regarding their possible associations with other functional traits (22)(23)(24)(25).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Phaeomelanin matters: redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and hormone profiles in male Scops owls (Otus scops)

Cruz‐Miralles

Avilés²,

Chastel

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Individuals within populations often show consistent variation in behavioural and physiological traits, which are frequently inter-correlated, potentially leading to phenotypic integration. Understanding the mechanisms behind such integration is a key task in evolutionary ecology, and melanism has been suggested to play a pivotal role. In birds, most of plumage colour variation is determined by two types of melanin, eumelanin and phaeomelanin, but the role of melanin in avian phenotype integration has mostly been analysed in relation to eumelanin. Here we test for covariation between phaeo-melanin-based coloration, behavioural traits (i.e. nest territoriality, response against researchers, breath rate and parental behaviour) and corticosterone profiles in the polymorphic scops owl Otus scops , a bird species in which more phaeomelanic individuals display reddish colorations. Results: In males, we observed differences between red and grey individuals in latency to return to the nest after being disturbed and in feather CORT. Reddish males took longer to return to their nests and showed higher levels of feather CORT than grey ones. Behaviour and CORT profiles did not differ between red and grey females. Conclusions: The found associations between redness, behaviour and CORT in males, but not in females, might suggest the existence of a sex-specific integrated phaeomelanic phenotype, likely due to pleiotropy, in scops owls.

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Section: Sense Of Covariation Between Colour Morph Behaviour and Corsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Sense Of Covariation Between Colour Morph Behaviour and Cormentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phaeomelanin matters: redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and hormone profiles in male Scops owls (Otus scops)

Cruz‐Miralles

Avilés²,

Chastel

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Here, we proposed a mechanism that could help explaining intra-specific variability in the propensity to use social information within populations. In vertebrates, melanin-coloration is often linked to variation in morphological, physiological, behavioural and life-history traits [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] , potentially leading to the integration of these traits into complex melanic syndromes over which selection may act 34 . This raises expectations that melanin-based coloration might be related to social information use.…”

Section: Melanism Influences the Use Of Social Information In A Polymmentioning

confidence: 99%

Melanism influences the use of social information in a polymorphic owl

Parejo

Avilés

2020

Sci Rep

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Social information use has well-known fitness benefits. However, causes underlying the apparent inter-individual variability in the propensity to use social information are poorly studied. Melanins are pigments responsible for most of intra-specific color variation in vertebrates and their variation is often associated with changes in behaviour. Here, we explored whether melanism is related to individual propensity to use social information in the color polymorphic scops owl Otus scops. We manipulated social information on predation risk at nests by broadcasting calls of the sympatric little owl Athene noctua and found that owlets of brownish females exposed to alarm calls had lower levels of natural antibodies than those of greyish females. In parallel, we found changes in parental behaviour contingent on coloration because when exposed to the risky treatment brownish females returned earlier to nests than greyish females and owlets raised by brownish females were fed with smaller prey than those raised by greyish ones. These results provide support for a previous ignored role of melanins on the propensity to use social information, which may help to explain the maintenance of melanin-based color polymorphisms wherever social environments are variable.

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“…However, most of studies do not differentiate between eumelanin and phaeomelanin, or just refer to the role of eumelanin (e.g. [5], but see [6,20]). This might be unfortunate because if the production of eumelanin compromises the synthesis of phaeomelanin (see [5]), covariation of the two pigments with other traits would be expected to differ [21][22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phaeomelanin matters: Redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and feather corticosterone in male scops owls (Otus scops)

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Individuals within populations often show consistent variation in behavioural and physiological traits which are frequently inter-correlated, potentially leading to phenotypic integration. Understanding the mechanisms behind such integration is a key task in evolutionary ecology, and melanin based colouration has been suggested to play a pivotal role. In birds, most of plumage colour variation is determined by two types of melanin, eumelanin and phaeomelanin, but the role of phaeomelanin in avian phenotype integration has been barely investigated. Here, we test for covariation between phaeomelanin-based colouration, behavioural traits (i.e. nest territoriality, aggressiveness, breath rate and parental behaviour) and corticosterone in feathers in the polymorphic scops owl Otus scops, a bird species in which more phaeomelanic individuals display reddish colourations. In males, we observed that reddish males took longer to return to their nests and showed higher levels of feather CORT than more greyish ones. Behaviour and feather CORT were not associated to plumage colour in females. The found associations between redness, behaviour and feather CORT in males, but not in females, might suggest the existence of a sex-specific integrated phaeomelanic phenotype in scops owls.

show abstract

Barn swallow antipredator behavior covaries with melanic coloration and predicts survival

Cited by 9 publications

References 93 publications

Phaeomelanin matters: redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and hormone profiles in male Scops owls (Otus scops)

Phaeomelanin matters: redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and hormone profiles in male Scops owls (Otus scops)

Melanism influences the use of social information in a polymorphic owl

Phaeomelanin matters: Redness associates with inter-individual differences in behaviour and feather corticosterone in male scops owls (Otus scops)

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