Urbanization enhances ornament expression in a common waterbird.

ABSTRACT: In birds, many components of visual communication (ie plumage and non-plumage ornaments) play an important role in signaling of individual quality. It is widely acknowledged that ornament expression may be modulated by environmental conditions, however, it remains relatively poorly explored whether and how urbanization affects the expression of non-plumage ornamentation in urban dwelling-individuals. Here, we investigated the effect of urbanization on the expression of bare-part (non-plumage) putative ornament (ie the frontal shield size) across eight populations of a common reed-nesting waterbird, the Eurasian coot Fulica atra. Most importantly, we found robust support for the positive effect of urbanization on shield size and its condition-dependent character in coots. Also, long-

SUBMITTER: Chyb A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12167231 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature