Ontogenetic variation in the plumage colour of female European Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca
Although variation in the dorsal plumage colour of male European Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca has received a great deal of attention, females of the species have been usually considered to be nearly uniformly monochromatic brown. Using reflectance spectrophotometry, we explore the age-depende...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2014 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/114733 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/114733 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Sexual dimorphism Ornaments Reflectance spectrophotometry Ageing |
| Sumario: | Although variation in the dorsal plumage colour of male European Pied Flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca has received a great deal of attention, females of the species have been usually considered to be nearly uniformly monochromatic brown. Using reflectance spectrophotometry, we explore the age-dependent variation of plumage colour in females. We disentangle the within- and between-individual effects of this pattern and show a within-individual darkening of the mantle colour with age, whereas differences between individuals in structural colour expression may underlie the trend for a more reflective white in the females' breast plumage with advancing age. The darkening of the dorsal plumage as females age reflects the most common pattern of age-related variation in males in most European populations of the species. |
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