UV vision: a bird's eye view of feathers

Burkhardt, Dietrich

doi:10.1007/bf00616750

Cited by 211 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Our results are consistent with previous findings that birds in better condition have greater carotenoid pigmentation, and a more orange cere (Bortolotti et al 2003). Carotenoid spectra often exhibit a secondary reflectance peak in the near-UV wavelengths (Burkhardt 1989;Bleiweiss 2004) visible to most birds but not to normal humans. Both the visible and UV reflectance bands result from a strong absorption band over short visible wavelengths (400-500 nm), which can create a bimodal profile pattern of reflectance (Bleiweiss 2005), as seen in the cere of Montagu's harrier (figure 1b).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Ultraviolet reflectance by the cere of raptors

Mougeot

Arroyo

2006

Biol. Lett.

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Ultraviolet (UV) signals have been shown to play key roles in social and sexual signalling in birds. Using a spectrophotometer, we analysed the colour of the cere (skin above the beak) of a diurnal raptor, the Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus), and show that it reflects in the UV part of the spectrum. The cere is a well-known sexual signal in raptors, with carotenoid based pigmentation being indicative of quality. We thus hypothesized that UV reflectance also signals quality. Accordingly, we found that in our sample of wild males, the location of the UV peak was related to the orangeness of cere and correlated with male body mass and condition (mass corrected for size). Also, males with brighter UV were mated to females that laid earlier, as expected if UV reflectance relates to a male's quality and attractiveness. Future studies should investigate the relationships between UV reflectance and carotenoid pigmentation of cere, and test how UV reflectance influences mate choice.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Ultraviolet reflectance by the cere of raptors

Mougeot

Arroyo

2006

Biol. Lett.

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“…We confirmed that no visual colour class represented in bird plumages was always associated with UV reflectance, just as no visual colour class always lacked UV reflectance (Burkhardt 1989). Nonetheless, some generalizations emerged (figure 1).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 70%

“…While recent research has shown that feathers in at least some bird species do reflect UV wavelengths (Burkhardt 1989;Bennett & Cuthill 1994;Hunt et al 1998;Andersson 1999;Doucet 2002;Hausmann et al 2003), the restricted taxonomic sampling of these studies means that no conclusion can be drawn about the phylogenetic distribution of UV reflectance among birds. Furthermore, plumage colour is one of the more evolutionarily labile features (Omland & Lanyon 2000) (hence its importance in the study of behavioural ecology and evolution), which again makes it difficult to extrapolate to all birds from the few studies documenting UV reflectance in single species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ubiquity of avian ultraviolet plumage reflectance

Eaton

Lanyon

2003

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

131

117

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Although several bird species have been shown to reflect ultraviolet (UV) light from their plumages, the incidence of UV reflectance, and therefore the potential for UV or UV-enhanced signals, across the avian tree of life is not known. In this study, we collected reflectance data from the plumages of 312 bird species representing 142 families. Our results demonstrate that all avian families possess plumages that reflect significant amounts of UV light. The ubiquity of UV reflectance indicates that all studies of avian behaviour, ecology and evolution involving plumage coloration would benefit from consideration of plumage reflectance in the UV portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, we demonstrate the existence of cryptic UV plumage patches and cryptic dimorphism among birds.

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“…UV plumage colors have been shown recently to be taxonomically widespread in birds (18,33,34), contributing to sexual dichromatism that humans cannot see (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). However, logistic regression modeling showed that only 23 of 552 (4.2%) feather patches sampled (representing 22 species) had strong correlations between only Q 1 (i.e., the UV quantum catch) and sex (see Table 1).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human vision fails to distinguish widespread sexual dichromatism among sexually “monochromatic” birds

Eaton

2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

184

158

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Historical scenarios of evolution of avian plumage coloration have been called into question with the discoveries that most birds can see UV light (which normal humans cannot), and that UV-reflecting plumages are widespread in birds. Several examples of sexual dichromatism not detectable with human visual capabilities suggest that our categorizations of plumages as sexually mono-or dichromatic might often be incorrect. Nonetheless, given the limited taxonomic scope of those examples, the vast majority of sexually monochromatic birds are still treated as such without question in avian research. Herein, I show that >90% of 139 species, in a broad sampling of presumed sexually monochromatic passerine birds, were actually sexually dichromatic from an avian visual perspective, based on comparisons of plumage reflectance data using a visual model of color discrimination thresholds. The taxonomic ubiquity of this result suggests that many existing interpretations of evolutionary patterns of sexual dichromatism in birds are erroneous. The visual model used herein provides a method for quantifying sexual dichromatism, revealing that most (58.7%) feather patches sampled lie along a continuum of dichromatism between avian and human discriminatory abilities and could represent unrecognized sexually selected signals. Sexual dichromatism in this study rarely resulted from intersexual differences in UV coloration alone, emphasizing the need for analysis of bird coloration in relation to the full extent of avian visual discriminatory abilities, including, but not limited to, UV-visual capabilities.color vision ͉ plumage evolution

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UV vision: a bird's eye view of feathers

Cited by 211 publications

References 26 publications

Ultraviolet reflectance by the cere of raptors

Ultraviolet reflectance by the cere of raptors

The ubiquity of avian ultraviolet plumage reflectance

Human vision fails to distinguish widespread sexual dichromatism among sexually “monochromatic” birds

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