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Are white-crowned sparrow badges reliable signals?

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Abstract

Status badges, such as crown plumage, mediate intraspecific interactions. The reliability of crown morphology as a status badge in male mountain white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha) is uncertain. We examined morphological and physiological correlates of the proportion of crown that was white (“crown-white”) in 178 male mountain white-crowned sparrows during the 2008–2009 breeding seasons. Using a paired experimental design, we presented territory-holding males with white-enhanced and white-reduced decoys and recorded aggressive behaviors. To assess physiological constraints on signal bluffing, a subsample of birds was captured and released after manipulating natural crowns to simulate bluffed white-enhanced or white-reduced crowns; corticosterone concentrations were assayed from blood drawn upon recapture and after a restraint-induced stressor. We found a significant positive association between crown-white and a measure of body size—tarsus length—which is an established indicator of resource-holding potential. In the decoy challenge, males responded more aggressively toward white-enhanced than white-reduced decoys. In the hormone experiment, white-enhanced birds had higher baseline corticosterone levels, whereas white-reduced birds had similar concentrations to controls. Furthermore, white-enhanced birds had an attenuated restraint-induced corticosterone response, while white-reduced birds mounted a significantly larger increase in corticosterone than controls. Taken together, these findings indicate that crown-white is a reliable status badge of resource-holding potential in male mountain white-crowned sparrows during the breeding season.

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Abbreviations

HPA:

Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Wei Perng for the help with the statistical analysis and for the insightful comments. We would also like to thank Bobbi Low, Kathy Welch, Laura Glassman, Courtney Murdock, Ian Billick, Jim Diana, Jacinta Beehner, Sushama Pavgi, Elizabeth Tibbetts, Peter Bednekoff, and Isaac Laubach for the assistance and advice. We would like to thank Dan Cohen who started working with the decoys and call playbacks, as well as Sonia Lei for her drawing of a sparrow crown. Finally, we would like to thank the University of Michigan Natural History Museum for the use of specimens and access to the spectrometer. This research was partially funded by the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School, the UM School of Natural Resources and Environment, and NSF grant IOS-1048529 to LMR.

Ethical standards

The methods for this study were approved by the University of Michigan’s University Committee on the Use and Care of Animals and complied with the United States Fish and Wildlife Regulations.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1041, USA

    Zachary M. Laubach, Greg Sampson & Johannes Foufopoulos

  2. Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Box 519, Crested Butte, CO, 81224, USA

    Zachary M. Laubach, Daniel T. Blumstein & Johannes Foufopoulos

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1606, USA

    Daniel T. Blumstein

  4. Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 01255, USA

    L. Michael Romero

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  1. Zachary M. Laubach
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Correspondence to Zachary M. Laubach.

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Communicated by E. Fernandez-Juricic

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Laubach, Z.M., Blumstein, D.T., Romero, L.M. et al. Are white-crowned sparrow badges reliable signals?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67, 481–492 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-012-1468-3

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