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Greater flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus use uropygial secretions as make-up

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Abstract

It was long thought that the colour of bird feathers does not change after plumage moult. However, there is increasing evidence that the colour of feathers may change due to abrasion, photochemical change and staining, either accidental or deliberate. The coloration of plumage due to deliberate staining, i.e. with cosmetic purposes, may help individuals to communicate their quality to conspecifics. The presence of carotenoids in preen oils has been previously only suggested, and here we confirm for the first time its presence in such oils. Moreover, the carotenoids in the uropygial secretions were the same specific pigments found in feathers. We show not only that the colour of feathers of greater flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus became more colourful due to the application of carotenoids from uropygial secretions over the plumage but also that the feathers became more colourful with the quantity of pigments applied over them, thus providing evidence of cosmetic coloration. Flamingos used uropygial secretions as cosmetic much more frequently during periods when they were displaying in groups than during the rest of the year, suggesting that the primary function of cosmetic coloration is mate choice. Individuals with more colourful plumage initiated nesting earlier. There was a correlation between plumage coloration before and after removal of uropygial secretions from feathers’ surfaces, suggesting that the use of these pigmented secretions may function as a signal amplifier by increasing the perceptibility of plumage colour, and hence of individual quality. As the cosmetic coloration strengthens signal intensity by reinforcing base-plumage colour, its use may help to the understanding of selection for signal efficacy by making interindividual differences more apparent.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Adrián, O. González, P. Rodríguez, N. Varo and M. Vázquez for helping to capture flamingos and taking samples, and F. Cézilly, K. Delhey, K.J. McGraw, J.J. Negro, J.C. Senar and two referees for commenting on the manuscript. The Consejería de Medio Ambiente of the Junta de Andalucía and ‘Cañada de los Pájaros’ provided facilities. Funding was provided by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of Spain with EU–ERDF support (research grants BOS2002-04695 and CGL2005-01136/BOS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wetland Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Calle Américo Vespucio s/n, 41092, Sevilla, Spain

    Juan A. Amat & Miguel A. Rendón

  2. Food Biotechnology Department, Instituto de la Grasa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Avenida Padre García Tejero 4, 41012, Sevilla, Spain

    Juan Garrido-Fernández & Antonio Pérez-Gálvez

  3. Reserva Natural Laguna de Fuente de Piedra, Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andalucía, Apartado 1, 29520, Fuente de Piedra, Spain

    Araceli Garrido & Manuel Rendón-Martos

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  1. Juan A. Amat
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  2. Miguel A. Rendón
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  3. Juan Garrido-Fernández
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  4. Araceli Garrido
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  5. Manuel Rendón-Martos
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  6. Antonio Pérez-Gálvez
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Correspondence to Juan A. Amat.

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Communicated by J. Lindström

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Amat, J.A., Rendón, M.A., Garrido-Fernández, J. et al. Greater flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus use uropygial secretions as make-up. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 665–673 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1068-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1068-z

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