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Informative content of multiple plumage-coloured traits in female and male European Rollers

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Abstract

Animals may assess the quality of other individuals by using information that different ornaments may provide. The European Roller (Coracias garrulus) is a socially monogamous species in which males and females display highly conspicuous plumage colouration. According to the mutual selection hypothesis, we predicted that, in this species, plumage coloration could signal individual quality in both sexes because both female and male rollers invest a considerable amount of time caring for their offspring. We used spectrophotometric measurements to investigate the information content of multiple plumage colour traits. We found that the roller is actually a sexually dimorphic and dichromatic species. Different plumage colours from different origins were correlated within individual. Head and back brightness correlated with body condition in both sexes, and in males, head brightness correlated with the number of fledglings in successful nests, while head green-yellow saturation correlated with parental provisioning. Meanwhile, in females, back brightness was related to the number of fledglings in successful nests and to parental provisioning rate. In addition, there was a positive assortative mating in relation to weight, body condition, head green-yellow saturation and back brightness. Finally, we found a positive correlation between parent and offspring coloration. Altogether, these results suggest that multiple colour traits may act as quality indicators in the roller and that they may be used by the two sexes to assess potential mate quality.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all the people who collaborated in data collection either in the field (L. Derousse, M. Guillemin, M. Kauffman, M. Kriloff, C. Landsmann, V. Lartigot, X. Mandine and G. Martinerie) or in the laboratory (J. M. Gasent). We also thank I. Cuthill and one anonymous referee for constructive comments that improved our manuscript. Fieldwork was done under the permission of the Junta de Extremadura and in compliance with the Spanish laws. This research work was partially supported by a doctoral grant to NS by the European Social Fund, an I3P contract to DP funded by the European Social Fund and by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia-FEDER, Secretaría de Estado de Universidades e Investigación, (project ref. CGL2005-04654/BOS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, C.S.I.C., C/ General Segura 1, 04001, Almería, Spain

    Deseada Parejo

  2. Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique, UMR CNRS-UPS 5174, Université Paul Sabatier–Toulouse III, 118 Route de Narbonne Bat IV R3 entrée b2, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 9, France

    Nadia Silva & Etiénne Danchin

  3. Departamento de Biología Animal y Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Jesús M. Avilés

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  1. Nadia Silva
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  2. Jesús M. Avilés
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  4. Deseada Parejo
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Correspondence to Deseada Parejo.

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Communicated by I. Cuthill

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Silva, N., Avilés, J.M., Danchin, E. et al. Informative content of multiple plumage-coloured traits in female and male European Rollers. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62, 1969–1979 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0628-y

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