Peacocks orient their courtship displays towards the sun

Dakin, Roslyn; Montgomerie, Robert

doi:10.1007/s00265-009-0717-6

Cited by 56 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…behavioural effect) or (3) both. We predicted that male Costa's hummingbirds, similar to other avian and non‐avian species (including a congener, Anna's hummingbirds, C. anna, during dive displays ; Hamilton ; also see Dakin & Montgomerie ; Bortolotti et al . ), would display with the sun in front of them, to increase their colour conspicuousness, although in a recent study of broad‐tailed hummingbird shuttles (Simpson & McGraw ) we showed that males do not shuttle in a specific location relative to the sun.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

It's not just what you have, but how you use it: solar‐positional and behavioural effects on hummingbird colour appearance during courtship

Simpson

McGraw

2018

Ecology Letters

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Animals exhibit a diversity of colours that can play key roles in mating interactions. However, we presently lack an understanding of the relative importance of the environment, behaviour and natural reflective properties of colourful ornaments in shaping an individual's colour appearance during mating displays. We investigated interactions among structurally based plumage, display environments and courtship shuttle displays of male Costa's hummingbirds (Calypte costae) to test how these elements may differentially contribute to colour appearance during shuttles. Male position relative to the sun was the strongest predictor of colour appearance, with shuttle behaviours and feather reflectance playing smaller roles. Furthermore, male solar orientation and shuttling behaviour (e.g. shuttle width) were repeatable among displays, whereas male colour appearance mostly was not. These results emphasise the contributions of behaviour and environment to colour-signalling and suggest that relying on reflectance measurements of colourful ornaments alone provides an incomplete picture of ecologically relevant visual phenotypes of displaying animals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

It's not just what you have, but how you use it: solar‐positional and behavioural effects on hummingbird colour appearance during courtship

Simpson

McGraw

2018

Ecology Letters

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“…Evidence suggests that individual birds can increase or decrease their exposure to others by displaying under specific viewing conditions (Uy and Endler 2004, Dakin and Montgomerie 2009, 2013, Sicsú et al 2013. Despite the diverse set of species in which double scattering has been registered by analysis of their plumage reflectance properties and production mechanisms (Osorio and Ham 2002, Noh et al 2010, Saranathan et al 2012, the effect of viewing geometry on their visibility to predators or conspecifics, to the best of our knowledge, has never been assessed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widespread cryptic dichromatism and ultraviolet reflectance in the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds: Implications of accounting for avian vision in the study of plumage evolution

Burns

Shultz

2012

The Auk

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“…In other avian visual displays made in relation to the position of the sun, the position of the receiver also affects the orientation of the signaller. For example, in two species with iridescent plumage, the Peafowl Pavo cristatus (Dakin & Montgomerie ) and Anna's Hummingbird Calypte anna (Hamilton ), and one species with a white rump patch (Great‐Bustard Otis tarda ; Olea et al . ), signalling individuals (males in this case) orient their bodies according to the position of females.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing sunlit owls in a new light: orienting Snowy Owls may not be displaying

Wiebe

Chang

2017

Ibis

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Snowy Owls Bubo scandiacus often face the sun when sitting on the ground or when perched. Such sun-orienting has been suggested to represent a visual display to conspecifics but other explanations have not been thoroughly examined. We observed the orientation of wintering Snowy Owls to both the sun and the wind, and their perching behaviour during two winters in central Saskatchewan, Canada. We proposed three new explanations for sun orientation in addition to the display hypothesis: thermoregulation, hunting and defence against predators. On sunny days, 44% of 710 Owls faced the sun; this was non-random because few did so on overcast days. Sun-as opposed to windorienting was strongly associated with weather conditions. Logistic regressions indicated that at temperatures below -13°C and at wind speeds greater than about 18 km/h, Owls tended to orient to the wind rather than to the sun. The likelihood of wind-orienting increased if the Owl perched above the ground, whereas the likelihood of sun-orientating increased slightly when the Owl was sitting on the ground. There was no difference between the sexes in orienting behaviour. Snowy Owls seemed to prioritize wind-orienting for thermoregulation but the results are also consistent with the idea that sun-orientation can reduce heat loss. Facing into the sun did not support the hunting explanation because the birds would have been blinded and not able to see prey, but was consistent with the protection explanation if it helps to increase vigilance against enemies. Although we cannot completely rule out the display explanation, the spatial context of sunning Owls and a lack of a sex effect makes it unlikely that this is the main function. Instead, Owls seem to trade-off wind-vs. sun-orienting according to the prevailing weather conditions and do so mainly to thermoregulate and perhaps to maintain vigilance.

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Peacocks orient their courtship displays towards the sun

Cited by 56 publications

References 21 publications

It's not just what you have, but how you use it: solar‐positional and behavioural effects on hummingbird colour appearance during courtship

It's not just what you have, but how you use it: solar‐positional and behavioural effects on hummingbird colour appearance during courtship

Widespread cryptic dichromatism and ultraviolet reflectance in the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds: Implications of accounting for avian vision in the study of plumage evolution

Seeing sunlit owls in a new light: orienting Snowy Owls may not be displaying

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