IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/beheco/v26y2015i4p1212-1218..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A receiver bias for red predates the convergent evolution of red color in widowbirds and bishops

Author

Listed:
  • Calum E. Ninnes
  • Marius Adrion
  • Pim Edelaar
  • José L. Tella
  • Staffan Andersson

Abstract

Preexisting receiver biases are well known and empirically supported alternatives or complements to signal evolution through coevolving mate choice, but largely neglected as drivers of sexually or socially selected agonistic signal evolution. In further pursuit of a recently revealed receiver bias for red agonistic signaling in Euplectes (17 species of widowbirds and bishops), we investigate here its presence in the yellow-crowned bishop (Euplectes afer), a representative of the earliest phylogenetic branch of the genus. In a captive population in southern Spain, where the yellow-crowned bishop is invasive, we staged and filmed 10-min dyadic contests over access to a feeder, between males with experimentally yellow- (control-) and red-painted crown plumage, respectively. Red males secured significantly more time at the feeder, and tended to win more of the limited number of supplant attempts observed. This suggests that the previously demonstrated agonistic signal function of red carotenoid coloration in widowbirds also applies to the bishop birds, and may derive from a receiver bias (aversion) that is substantially older than the convergent gains of red plumage pigmentation in Euplectes, and perhaps also predating the evolution of red in a few other weaverbird (Ploceidae) lineages. Given the similarities in ecology and behavior across Euplectes, the color diversity appears to primarily be a consequence of evolutionary limitations on mechanisms for achieving red coloration.

Suggested Citation

  • Calum E. Ninnes & Marius Adrion & Pim Edelaar & José L. Tella & Staffan Andersson, 2015. "A receiver bias for red predates the convergent evolution of red color in widowbirds and bishops," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(4), pages 1212-1218.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:26:y:2015:i:4:p:1212-1218.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arv068
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:26:y:2015:i:4:p:1212-1218.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/beheco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.