Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions

1. Avian plumage colouration is an iconic example of trait variability among species. Sexual, social and natural selection, and the environmental variables modulating them are the main drivers of this variability. 2. So far, most research exploring environmental effects on the variability of plumage...

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Autores: López-Idiáquez, D., Doutrelant, C., Pearman, P.B.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/75607
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/75607
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:bird colouration
climate
colour complexity
Paridae
sexual dichromatism
sexual selection
signalling
thermoregulation
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spelling Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regionsLópez-Idiáquez, D.Doutrelant, C.Pearman, P.B.bird colourationclimatecolour complexityParidaesexual dichromatismsexual selectionsignallingthermoregulation1. Avian plumage colouration is an iconic example of trait variability among species. Sexual, social and natural selection, and the environmental variables modulating them are the main drivers of this variability. 2. So far, most research exploring environmental effects on the variability of plumage colouration has focused on the variation in overall plumage darkness. Research on other aspects of colour variation, such as the diversity of colours exhibited by a species (i.e. colour complexity), is limited and has produced inconsistent results. Furthermore, colour complexity has mostly been analysed at the whole-plumage level, despite the possibility that the colour complexity of different plumage patches may be sensitive to different environmental factors. 3. Here, we quantify male and female colouration in 58 species of the family Paridae, and use multi-predictor Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models to estimate the relationship of colouration with biotic and climatic variables that quantify environment, and with several species-specific characteristics. We consider both the colouration of the whole plumage and the colouration of four separate colour patches (head, chest, back and wing). 4. We find that Paridae species in climates with intermediate temperatures present more complex colouration than do species in warmer/colder climates. In addition, males, relatively small species, and species with relatively greater sexual dichromatism have more complex plumage colouration. We find that the numbers of predators and sympatric conspecifics are more associated with female colouration than with male colouration. Finally, the strength of the associations with colour complexity is specific to each plumage region: species recognition, beak size and climate variables related to competition for reproductive resources (i.e. precipitation seasonality) are more strongly associated with colouration complexity of the head and breast than with that of the back and wing. 5. Overall, our results illustrate the importance of climatic and social variables, the link between colour complexity and dichromatism in both sexes, and the analysis of distinct plumage areas for understanding global patterns of colouration complexity and the processes that promote them.We thank H. van Grouw, M. Adams and A. Bond from the Bird Group at the Natural History Museum at Tring for providing access to and expertise in the collection used in this study. We also thank A. Estrada, D. G\u00F3mez, E. Harscouet, N. Merino\u2010Recalde and A. Fargevieille for their technical, analytical and conceptual help and U. Johansson for sharing the Paridae tree used in our analyses. We appreciate the work and time of the three anonymous reviewers who helped to improve previous versions of this manuscript. This work was funded by a Synthesis+ grant (GB\u2010TAF\u2010TA3\u2010027 20) from the European Commission granted to D.L.\u2010I. D.L.\u2010I. was funded by a postdoctoral grant from the Basque Government Department of Education (POS\u20102019\u20101\u20100026).Journal of Animal EcologyEuropean CommissionBasque Government Department of Education202520252025info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10810/75607reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigacióninstname:Universidad del País VascoIngléshttps://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70077info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/es/© 2025 The Authors.Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Españaoai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/756072026-06-18T09:23:17Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
title Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
spellingShingle Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
López-Idiáquez, D.
bird colouration
climate
colour complexity
Paridae
sexual dichromatism
sexual selection
signalling
thermoregulation
title_short Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
title_full Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
title_fullStr Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
title_full_unstemmed Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
title_sort Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv López-Idiáquez, D.
Doutrelant, C.
Pearman, P.B.
author López-Idiáquez, D.
author_facet López-Idiáquez, D.
Doutrelant, C.
Pearman, P.B.
author_role author
author2 Doutrelant, C.
Pearman, P.B.
author2_role author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv European Commission
Basque Government Department of Education
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv bird colouration
climate
colour complexity
Paridae
sexual dichromatism
sexual selection
signalling
thermoregulation
topic bird colouration
climate
colour complexity
Paridae
sexual dichromatism
sexual selection
signalling
thermoregulation
description 1. Avian plumage colouration is an iconic example of trait variability among species. Sexual, social and natural selection, and the environmental variables modulating them are the main drivers of this variability. 2. So far, most research exploring environmental effects on the variability of plumage colouration has focused on the variation in overall plumage darkness. Research on other aspects of colour variation, such as the diversity of colours exhibited by a species (i.e. colour complexity), is limited and has produced inconsistent results. Furthermore, colour complexity has mostly been analysed at the whole-plumage level, despite the possibility that the colour complexity of different plumage patches may be sensitive to different environmental factors. 3. Here, we quantify male and female colouration in 58 species of the family Paridae, and use multi-predictor Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models to estimate the relationship of colouration with biotic and climatic variables that quantify environment, and with several species-specific characteristics. We consider both the colouration of the whole plumage and the colouration of four separate colour patches (head, chest, back and wing). 4. We find that Paridae species in climates with intermediate temperatures present more complex colouration than do species in warmer/colder climates. In addition, males, relatively small species, and species with relatively greater sexual dichromatism have more complex plumage colouration. We find that the numbers of predators and sympatric conspecifics are more associated with female colouration than with male colouration. Finally, the strength of the associations with colour complexity is specific to each plumage region: species recognition, beak size and climate variables related to competition for reproductive resources (i.e. precipitation seasonality) are more strongly associated with colouration complexity of the head and breast than with that of the back and wing. 5. Overall, our results illustrate the importance of climatic and social variables, the link between colour complexity and dichromatism in both sexes, and the analysis of distinct plumage areas for understanding global patterns of colouration complexity and the processes that promote them.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10810/75607
url http://hdl.handle.net/10810/75607
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70077
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/es/
© 2025 The Authors.
Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 España
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/es/
© 2025 The Authors.
Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 España
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Journal of Animal Ecology
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Journal of Animal Ecology
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
instname:Universidad del País Vasco
instname_str Universidad del País Vasco
reponame_str Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
collection Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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