Counting marmots…
Status badges, such as bird plumage colors, are important parts of animal communication; they mediate intra- as well as intersexual interactions. Reliability of avian plumage badges is thought to be maintained by selective pressures, including social punishment. Costs, benefits, and resultant fitness tradeoffs are thought to maintain reliable status badges as evolutionarily stable signals. We tested this hypothesis during two breeding seasons (summers 2008-2009) in a population of Mountain White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha; MWCS) in Colorado (USA). Both sexes of this species possess a black and white striped crown that mediates interactions between juvenile and adult birds. Crown whiteness, expressed as the percentage of the crown that consists of white feathers, varies widely across individual sparrows.
Knowledge graph centered on Functional importance of plumage badges as intrasp with 42 nodes and 81 connections. Top connected: Populus, Populus tremuloides, Parus major, Zonotrichia leucophrys, Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha.
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