Functional importance of plumage badges as intraspecific signals in White-crowned sparrows (<i>Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha</i>).
Abstract
Status badges, such as bird plumage colors, are important parts of animal communication; they mediate intra- as well as intersexual interactions. Reliability of avian plumage badges is thought to be maintained by selective pressures, including social punishment. Costs, benefits, and resultant fitness tradeoffs are thought to maintain reliable status badges as evolutionarily stable signals. We tested this hypothesis during two breeding seasons (summers 2008-2009) in a population of Mountain White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha; MWCS) in Colorado (USA). Both sexes of this species possess a black and white striped crown that mediates interactions between juvenile and adult birds. Crown whiteness, expressed as the percentage of the crown that consists of white feathers, varies widely across individual sparrows.
Local Knowledge Graph (25 entities)
Related Works
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.
Intraspecific signaling function of Crown Coloration in Mountain White-Crowned Sparrows
Are white-crowned sparrow badges reliable signals?
Patterns of ectoparasite prevalence in the mountain white-crowned sparrow, <i></i>Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha<i></i>
Data from: Z chromosome divergence, polymorphism, and relative effective population size in a genus of lekking birds
Ecological causes and consequences of flower color polymorphism in a self-pollinating plant (Boechera stricta)
Marmot mass gain rates relate to their group’s social structure
Status of Gunison's [sic] sage grouse
Gunnison sage grouse is being considered for endangered species status
Gunnison Sage-Grouse Conservation Priority Regions in the Gunnison Basin
References (98)
98 references to works outside the Knowledge Hub