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Pigment allocation to eggs decreases plasma antioxidants in a songbird

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Abstract

Although evidence is accumulating on the adaptive function of female ornamentation, very little is known about maternal allocation decisions involving sexual signaling and other reproductive functions. Blue egg coloration has been suggested as a sexually selected signal of female quality to males, and some recent studies are in accordance with this hypothesis. Blue eggshell coloration results from the deposition of biliverdin pigment by laying females, which is a potent antioxidant. Thus, egg pigmentation should be costly in terms of antioxidants, an assumption of the signaling hypothesis that has not been tested yet. We induced increased reproductive effort in a set of female pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca through nest removal and measured egg pigmentation and plasma antioxidant levels in relation with a control group. Experimental females showed a negative association between egg color and plasma antioxidant levels, while there was no relationship for control birds. This supports that egg pigmentation is costly in terms of general antioxidant defenses and suggests a tradeoff between the allocations to both traits. Furthermore, experimental females with more colorful eggs raised more fledglings, especially when breeding early. Controls did not show a relationship between egg color and reproductive success. Females laying more colorful eggs could have shifted their allocation decisions towards current reproduction, at the expense of their own antioxidant defenses. Our results highlight that blue egg coloration is a life-history trait, subject to tradeoffs with other attributes, and seems to be especially informative under harsh breeding conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We are grateful to Consuelo Corral and Cristóbal Pérez for their invaluable help, respectively, in the field and in the laboratory. The present study was financed by projects CGL2007-61251 to J. Moreno and CGL2006-10347-C02-01/BOS to A. Velando. Consejería de Medio Ambiente (Comunidad de Madrid) authorized the ringing and blood sampling of birds. The Spanish Ministry of Education and Science supported J. Morales through a postdoctoral fellowship and A. Velando through a Ramón y Cajal fellowship. The study complies with the current laws of Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ecología, Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Laboratorio de Conducta Animal, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70-275, México, Distrito Federal, 04510, México

    Judith Morales

  2. Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal, Universidade de Vigo, 36310, Vigo, Spain

    Judith Morales & Alberto Velando

  3. Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Moreno

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  1. Judith Morales
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  2. Alberto Velando
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Correspondence to Judith Morales.

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Communicated by J. Graves

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Morales, J., Velando, A. & Moreno, J. Pigment allocation to eggs decreases plasma antioxidants in a songbird. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63, 227–233 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0653-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0653-x

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