Blue tits are ultraviolet tits

Hunt, Sarah; Bennett, Andrew T. D.; Cuthill, Innes C.; Griffiths, Richard

doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0316

Cited by 262 publications

(233 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

225

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although evidence of hidden UV colour patterns was very rare, we did find that cryptic dimorphism, as first discovered in blue tits (Hunt et al 1998;Andersson et al 1998), might be substantially more common among birds. Based on our observations, we could not perceive coloration differences in feather patches whose associated spectra differed in reflectance by as much as 10% across the human-visible portion of the spectrum.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Second, our definition would classify as monomorphic those patches that differed by less than 5% at the peak sensitivity of the UV cone, even though research has shown that such small UV differences (less than 5%) can influence behaviour (e.g. Bennett et al 1997;Andersson et al 1998;Hunt et al 1998;Siitari et al 2002). The existence of cryptic dimorphism produced by sexual differences in structural colours that humans are incapable of seeing, suggests that there is a class of sexually selected traits of which human observers have been unaware.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Andersson et al 1998;Hunt et al 1998). Several species have been shown to use UV plumage information during mate choice (Andersson & Amundsen 1997;Bennett et al 1997;Hunt et al 1999;Pearn et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The ubiquity of avian ultraviolet plumage reflectance

Eaton

Lanyon

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

131

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although several bird species have been shown to reflect ultraviolet (UV) light from their plumages, the incidence of UV reflectance, and therefore the potential for UV or UV-enhanced signals, across the avian tree of life is not known. In this study, we collected reflectance data from the plumages of 312 bird species representing 142 families. Our results demonstrate that all avian families possess plumages that reflect significant amounts of UV light. The ubiquity of UV reflectance indicates that all studies of avian behaviour, ecology and evolution involving plumage coloration would benefit from consideration of plumage reflectance in the UV portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, we demonstrate the existence of cryptic UV plumage patches and cryptic dimorphism among birds.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The ubiquity of avian ultraviolet plumage reflectance

Eaton

Lanyon

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

131

117

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition to foraging, blue tits are dimorphic in the UV and seem to use these cues in mate choice (Andersson et al 1998;Hunt et al 1998). Furthermore, some of the light environments likely to be present in a blue tit's habitatö`woodland shade' (Endler 1993b) in particularömay be quite rich in short wavelength light.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…focused on three hypotheses regarding the functional signi¢cance of avian UV vision: (i) mate choice, (ii) foraging, and (iii) navigation. To date, behavioural studies have provided evidence that UV cues play an important role in conspeci¢c signalling in several bird species (Maier 1993;Bennett et al 1996Bennett et al , 1997Andersson & Amundsen 1997;Hunt et al 1997Hunt et al , 1998Andersson et al 1998). Here, we focus on the hypothesis that UV vision enhances foraging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultraviolet cues affect the foraging behaviour of blue tits

Church

Bennett

Cuthill

et al. 1998

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The function of avian ultraviolet (UV) vision is only just beginning to be understood. One plausible hypothesis is that UV vision enhances the foraging ability of birds. To test this, we carried out behavioural experiments using wild-caught blue tits foraging for cabbage moth and winter moth caterpillars on natural and arti¢cial backgrounds. The light environment in our experiments was manipulated using either UVblocking or UV-transmitting ¢lters. We found that the blue tits tended to ¢nd the ¢rst prey item (out of four) more quickly when UV cues were present. This suggests that UV vision o¡ers bene¢ts to birds when searching for cryptic prey, despite the prey and backgrounds re£ecting relatively little UV. Although there was no direct e¡ect of UVon the time taken to ¢nd all four prey items in a trial, search performance in the absence of UV wavelengths tended to increase over the course of an experiment. This may re£ect changes in the search tactics of the birds. To our knowledge, these are the ¢rst data to suggest that birds use UVcues to detect cryptic insect prey, and have implications for our understanding of protective coloration.

show abstract

Production of plumage ornaments among males and females of two closely related tropical passerine bird species

Enbody

Lantz

Karubian

2017

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The evolution of elaborate secondary sexual traits (i.e., ornaments) is well‐studied in males but less so in females. Similarity in the appearance of ornaments between males and females supports the view that female ornaments arise as a neutral byproduct of selection on male traits due to genetic correlation between sexes, but recent research suggests an adaptive function of female ornaments in at least some contexts. Information on the degree to which production of ornaments differs between the sexes can shed light on these alternative perspectives. We therefore characterized the structural underpinnings of melanin‐based plumage production in males and females of two closely related passerine bird species (genus Malurus). Importantly, both ornamented and unornamented phenotypes in each sex are present between these two species, providing an opportunity to test the null expectation of equivalent modes of production in male and female ornamented phenotypes. In Malurus alboscapulatus, ornamented females are qualitatively similar to males, but we describe a distinctive ornamented female phenotype that differs from that of males in lacking a blue sheen and in lower feather barbule density. In M. melanocephalus, unornamented males and females are also similar in appearance, and we describe a similarity between unornamented phenotypes of males and females in both color and underlying feather barbule structure and pigment composition. Unornamented male M. melanocephalus can flexibly transition to the ornamented phenotype in weeks, and we found extreme differences in color and feather structure between these two alternative male phenotypes. These results contradict the idea that female ornaments have evolved in this system following a simple switch to male‐like plumage by demonstrating greater complexity in the production of the ornamented phenotype in males than in females.

show abstract

Blue tits are ultraviolet tits

Cited by 262 publications

References 26 publications

The ubiquity of avian ultraviolet plumage reflectance

The ubiquity of avian ultraviolet plumage reflectance

Ultraviolet cues affect the foraging behaviour of blue tits

Production of plumage ornaments among males and females of two closely related tropical passerine bird species

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About