Diet explains red flight feathers in Yellow-shafted Flickers in eastern North America

Hudon, Jocelyn; Driver, Robert J.; Rice, Nathan H.; Lloyd-Evans, Trevor L.; Craves, Julie A; Shustack, Daniel P.

doi:10.1642/auk-16-63.1

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…It is known that non‐native foods can be used by invasive animals (e.g. invasive red‐vented bulbuls, Pycnonotus cafer , disperse several non‐native plant seeds in many Pacific islands; Spotswood et al , 2013, Thibault et al ) and by native animals (Cameron and Bayne , Chupp and Battaglia , Hudson et al ). It is also likely that native faunas underexploit non‐native foods (Connolly et al ) because, on an evolutionary scale, these are new resources that native faunas may not have yet adapted to use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Naturalized plants decrease diet similarity between an invasive bird and its most similar native species

Cardoso

Rodrigues

Alves

et al. 2018

Journal of Avian Biology

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Although invasive animals can compete with native species for resources, detrimental competition for food is seldom reported in the avian invasions literature. In temperate climates, food limitation and energetic stress are higher during winter and, thus, winter diets might reveal competition that is not apparent during the rest of the year. We compared autumn and winter diets of the invasive common waxbill Estrilda astrild in northwest Iberia, and of the native bird most similar to it in foraging behaviour, the European serin Serinus serinus. Both bird species forage for seeds in open habitats, mostly in or around agricultural areas. We found that food preferences of the two species were substantially different when foraging on the same agricultural landscape. Contrary to the prediction that food scarcity in winter would make diets more similar, the diets of waxbills and serins diverged in winter, indicating low potential for detrimental interspecific competition. Differences in diet were in part due to foraging on non‐native plants. Non‐native seeds represented a large part of the waxbill diet in autumn (a non‐native grass), and a small part of serin's (a non‐native forb), substantially decreasing their diet similarity. Our results are consistent with the view that waxbills are using a vacant niche in human‐modified habitats, in this case involving non‐crop plants associated with agricultural practices (e.g. irrigation, tillage, harvest) that are underexploited by the native fauna. Understanding which invasive animals fill those vacant niches and, thus, may interfere minimally with native faunas, helps to prioritize conservation actions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An intriguing possibility is that, as biological invasions became common, non‐native species themselves provide novel resources (e.g. food sources) that facilitate the establishment of other invasive species (O'Loughlin and Green ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Naturalized plants decrease diet similarity between an invasive bird and its most similar native species

Cardoso

Rodrigues

Alves

et al. 2018

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…We scored plumage characters of historic and contemporary flickers on a categorical scale from 0 (pure yellow-shafted) to 4 (pure red-shafted) for each of the six plumage traits following a protocol slightly modified from Short (1965; see Table S1 for details); a method that has been used extensively within the flicker system (e.g., Moore and Buchanan 1985; Moore 1987; Wiebe 2000; Flockhart and Wiebe 2007; Aguillon et al 2021). The main modification from Short (1965) is differences in our scoring of the shaft color based on an increased understanding of carotenoid pigmentation, particularly around orange shaft feathers (e.g., Hudon et al 2017). We additionally calculated an overall plumage hybrid index by summing across the trait scores and standardizing to range from 0 to 1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 and Table S1 for details); a method that has been used extensively within the flicker system (e.g., Moore and Buchanan 1985;Moore 1987;Wiebe 2000;Flockhart and Wiebe 2007;Aguillon et al 2021). The main modification from Short (1965) is differences in our scoring of the shaft color based on an increased understanding of carotenoid pigmentation, particularly around orange shaft feathers (e.g., Hudon et al 2017). We additionally calculated an overall plumage hybrid index by summing across the trait scores within each individual and dividing by 24 in males and 20 in females (the maximum possible) to obtain a score that ranges from 0 to 1.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting a classic hybrid zone: rapid movement of the northern flicker hybrid zone in contemporary times

Aguillon

2021

Preprint

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Natural hybrid zones have provided important insights into the evolutionary process, and their geographic stability/instability over time can help to disentangle the underlying biological processes that maintain them. Here, we leverage replicated sampling of an identical transect across the hybrid zone between yellow-shafted and red-shafted flickers to assess its stability over ~60 years (1955-1957 to 2016-2018). Using a plumage scoring approach that we validate with independent multispectral photography, we identify a ~73 km westward shift in the hybrid zone center towards the range of the red-shafted flicker but no associated changes in width. By integrating previous work in the same geographic region, it appears likely that this movement has occurred rapidly in the years since the early 1980s, prior to which the hybrid zone had remained stable over the previous century. This recent, rapid movement may be related to changes in climate or land management in contemporary times.

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“…In the midwestern and northeastern United States, invasive honeysuckle ( Lonicera spp.) has been implicated in the enhancement of carotenoid-based signals in a variety of bird species (e.g., Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis ; Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrorum ; Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula ; Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus ; Mulvihill et al 1992, Hudon et al 2013, 2017; Hudon and Mulvihill 2017). Lonicera thrives in urban areas (Rodewald 2005, Borgmann and Rodewald 2005, Leston and Rodewald 2006), providing a potential link between urbanization and enhanced color.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple carotenoid-based signals are enhanced despite poor body condition in urban male and female Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Baldassarre

Bedell

Drzewiecki

et al. 2022

Preprint

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If humans aim to sustainably coexist with wildlife, we must understand how our activity impacts the communication systems of urban animal populations. We know much about the effects of anthropogenic noise on bird song, but relatively little about how avian visual signals are affected by urbanization. Such an effect may occur if urbanization alters the food available to species with color based on carotenoids, which they must obtain from their diet. Over three years, we compared a comprehensive suite of visual signals in male and female Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinals) in a rural and an urban population. We predicted that urban birds would have enhanced carotenoid-based signals as they likely have access to more carotenoids from invasive plants, especially honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.), that thrive in cities. We used reflectance spectrometry, digital image analyses, and avian visual models to quantify hue, saturation, and brightness of chest (male), underwing (female), and bill (male and female) signals. Compared to rural males, urban males had redder chest feathers in one year and redder bills in every year. Urban females had more saturated underwing color than rural females in every year. These color differences were sufficient to be distinguished by the avian visual system. Urbanization did not affect female bill color. Interestingly, urban birds had significantly reduced mass-related body condition compared to rural birds. These results show that both male and female urban birds can display enhanced carotenoid-based signals despite being in relatively poor condition. The consequences of this color enhancement are unknown, but it could affect the information content of the signals and the dynamics of the social and mating systems. These results stand in stark contrast to the predominant trend in birds of decreased color in urban areas and highlight the complex and varied potential effects of urbanization on animal communication.LAY SUMMARYUrbanization typically dulls bird color, but carotenoid-based signals may be enhanced if urban birds have increased access to carotenoids from invasive plants.Urban Northern Cardinals of both sexes had enhanced signal color compared to rural birds, but were in worse body condition.Urban birds likely had greater access to carotenoids from invasive plants, allowing them to produce enhanced color despite poor condition.Urbanization can disrupt animal communication and possibly alter evolutionary dynamics.

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Diet explains red flight feathers in Yellow-shafted Flickers in eastern North America

Cited by 14 publications

References 23 publications

Naturalized plants decrease diet similarity between an invasive bird and its most similar native species

Naturalized plants decrease diet similarity between an invasive bird and its most similar native species

Revisiting a classic hybrid zone: rapid movement of the northern flicker hybrid zone in contemporary times

Multiple carotenoid-based signals are enhanced despite poor body condition in urban male and female Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis)

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