Connecting the dots: avian eggshell pigmentation, female condition and paternal provisioning effort.

ABSTRACT: Differences in avian eggshell pigmentation could be an honest signal of female quality that males use to inform their nestling provisioning effort. We investigated whether among-individual variation in protoporphyrin-based eggshell pigmentation in house wrens (Troglodytes aedon) reflects female fitness-associated traits and whether males use that information. Females laying lighter clutches were older and larger than females laying darker clutches. Nestlings hatching from lighter clutches had greater size-corrected mass on post-hatch day 11, a measure that strongly predicts survival and recruitment to the breeding population. To test whether male provisioning effort responds to clutch pigmentation, we used a reciprocal clutch cross-fostering design, swapping dark with light clutches

SUBMITTER: Hodges KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7199457 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature