Authors: Jesús M Avilés Deseada Parejo Tomás PérezContreras Carlos Navarro Juan J Soler
Publish Date: 2009/11/26
Volume: 97, Issue: 2, Pages: 181-186
Abstract
A considerable number of bird species carry feathers to their nests Feathers’ presence in the nests has traditionally been explained by their insulating properties Recently however it has been suggested that feathers carried to the nests by females of the spotted starling Sturnus unicolor L could have an ornamental function based on their ultraviolet 300–400 nm and humanvisible longer wavelength 400–700 nm coloration In our population 957 of feathers found inside nextboxes occupied by nesting starlings were rock dove fly feathers Of these feathers 827 were naturally positioned with their reverse side oriented toward the entrance hole and 424 of all found feathers were situated within the nestcup Here we experimentally assess the signaling function of ultraviolet coloration of feathers in nests of spotless starlings by providing nests with a number of pigeon flight feathers that were respectively treated on their obverse reverse both or neither side with a UV blocker Starlings placed 425 of the experimental feathers in the nestcup irrespective of the UV block treatment Orientation of feathers toward the entrance hole was not related with their ultraviolet radiation However feathers placed within the nestcup were more likely found with their reverse side oriented toward the entrance hole confirming our correlative findings These results suggest a minor role of ultraviolet coloration on feather location by spotless starlingsWe thank Pablo Veiga and Vicente Polo for useful comments and discussion that enhanced our manuscript Funding was provided by Junta de Andalucía RNM 345 and the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and European founds FEDER CGL200761251 CGL200800718 to TPC CN JJS and JMA
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