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Male bill colour and age are associated with parental abilities and breeding performance in blackbirds

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Abstract

In monogamous bird species, male parental investment may influence offspring fitness and females may gain advantages through mating with males providing extensive paternal care. However, paternal care is a benefit that can only be assessed indirectly because mate choice precedes paternal activities. Individual quality and age, both signalled by morphological characteristics, may reflect parental abilities. Because they may reflect individual foraging abilities, carotenoid-based colorations have been proposed to honestly signal parental quality. The blackbird (Turdus merula), a socially monogamous species, exhibits biparental care and males show bills that vary from pale yellow to orange due to carotenoid pigments. In this study, we investigated whether male bill colour and age are associated with parental ability. Our results suggest that males with more orange bills and older males are better fathers. Indeed, male visit rate increased with their bill colour index independently of age, and brood condition was higher for adult males, compared to yearlings, independently of bill colour. Overall, the number of fledglings produced was positively influenced by both the age of males and the colour intensity of their bills. Males with more orange bills and adults had a greater number of fledglings and these males also had higher levels of prolactin, a hormone known to promote parental care. This latter finding suggests that prolactin may be the link between carotenoid based colorations and the intensity of paternal effort. Thus, male bill colour seems to honestly reveal male physiological adjustment to paternal activities.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the C.R.B.P.O., the ville de Dijon and Jardin Botanique de la ville de Dijon for permissions. This study was supported by the GDR CNRS 2155 “Ecologie Comportementale”. André Lacroix has done an invaluable technical work. We would like to thank Manuel Soler and the two anonymous referees for valuable comments that improved the mansucript. This work would not have been possible without technical assistance in the field from Mathias Barot, Romain Barot, Marco Barroca, Anne Besson, Claire Carvin, Claire Chalopin, Séverine Clair, Arnaud Grégoire, Luc Guillaume and Laurence Torcel. This work complies with French laws governing bird capture and experiments on animals

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe Ecologie Evolutive (UMR CNRS 5561), Université de Bourgogne, 6 boulevard Gabriel, 21000, Dijon, France

    Marina Préault, Frank Cézilly & Bruno Faivre

  2. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS, 79360, Villiers en bois, France

    Olivier Chastel

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  1. Marina Préault
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  2. Olivier Chastel
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  4. Bruno Faivre
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Correspondence to Bruno Faivre.

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Communicated by M. Soler

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Préault, M., Chastel, O., Cézilly, F. et al. Male bill colour and age are associated with parental abilities and breeding performance in blackbirds. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 58, 497–505 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0937-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0937-3

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