-
Article
Open AccessFlexibility underlies differences in mitochondrial respiratory performance between migratory and non-migratory White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
Migration is one of the most energy-demanding behaviors observed in birds. Mitochondria are the primary source of energy used to support these long-distance movements, yet how mitochondria meet the energetic d...
-
Article
Open AccessLevels of pathogen virulence and host resistance both shape the antibody response to an emerging bacterial disease
Quantifying variation in the ability to fight infection among free-living hosts is challenging and often constrained to one or a few measures of immune activity. While such measures are typically taken to refl...
-
Article
Predicting adult lifespan and lifetime reproductive success from early-life reproductive events
Fitness is a product of survival and fecundity, which arise from a host of individual traits that vary among individuals. Estimating fitness is central to many research programs in ecology and evolution. Yet, ...
-
Article
Open AccessMultiple differences in pathogen-host cell interactions following a bacterial host shift
Novel disease emergence is often associated with changes in pathogen traits that enable pathogen colonisation, persistence and transmission in the novel host environment. While understanding the mechanisms und...
-
Article
Open AccessNo evidence that carotenoid pigments boost either immune or antioxidant defenses in a songbird
Dietary carotenoids have been proposed to boost immune system and antioxidant functions in vertebrate animals, but studies aimed at testing these physiological functions of carotenoids have often failed to fin...
-
Article
Open AccessCarotenoid metabolism strengthens the link between feather coloration and individual quality
Thirty years of research has made carotenoid coloration a textbook example of an honest signal of individual quality, but tests of this idea are surprisingly inconsistent. Here, to investigate sources of this ...
-
Article
Sexiness, Individual Condition, and Species Identity: The Information Signaled by Ornaments and Assessed by Choosing Females
Biologists have long debated the evolution of animal ornamentation via female choice. Much of the discussion of ornament evolution has focused on three hypotheses: the species recognition hypothesis, the indic...
-
Article
Open AccessCoccidial infection does not influence preening behavior in American goldfinches
Preening behavior in birds is important for the maintenance of thermoregulatory and ornamental functions of plumage. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that birds trade off time between plumage maintenance an...
-
Article
Open AccessA house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) spleen transcriptome reveals intra- and interspecific patterns of gene expression, alternative splicing and genetic diversity in passerines
With its plumage color dimorphism and unique history in North America, including a recent population expansion and an epizootic of Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG), the house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) is a model ...
-
Article
Prevalence of Blood Parasites in Eastern Versus Western House Finches: Are Eastern Birds Resistant to Infection?
The rapid spread of the bacterial disease, Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG), throughout the introduced range of house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) in eastern North America, compared to its slower spread through th...
-
Article
Detrimental effects of carotenoid pigments: the dark side of bright coloration
Carotenoid pigments produce yellow, orange, and red integumentary color displays that can serve as reliable signals of health and condition. In many birds and fish, individuals gain competitive or mating advan...
-
Article
Open AccessDevelo** GIS-based eastern equine encephalitis vector-host models in Tuskegee, Alabama
A site near Tuskegee, Alabama was examined for vector-host activities of eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus (EEEV). Land cover maps of the study site were created in ArcInfo 9.2® from QuickBird data encompass...
-
Article
Do feather-degrading bacteria affect sexually selected plumage color?
Models of parasite-mediated sexual selection propose that males with more elaborate sexual traits will have fewer parasites. These models have generally been tested using metazoan or protozoan parasites of the...
-
Article
Female choice for genetic complementarity in birds: a review
Data from avian species have played a prominent role in develo** and testing theories of female mate choice. One of the most prominent models of sexual selection, the “good genes” model, emphasizes the indir...
-
Article
The effect of rearing environment on blue structural coloration of eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis)
We used a brood-size manipulation to test the effect of rearing environment on structural coloration of feathers grown by eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) nestlings. Ultraviolet (UV)-blue structural coloration ha...
-
Article
An experimental test of female choice relative to male structural coloration in eastern bluebirds
Several experimental studies have shown that female birds use ornamental melanin and carotenoid plumage coloration as criteria in mate choice. Whether females choose mates based on natural variation in structu...
-
Article
Yolk androgen deposition as a compensatory strategy
The deposition of androgens into the yolks of eggs can have long-lasting effects on the growth and development of young birds. It has been proposed that female birds and reptiles deposit yolk androgens accordi...
-
Article
Egg coloration is correlated with female condition in eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis)
Egg coloration has been hypothesized to reflect female condition. Because of the proposed physiological costs associated with deposition of biliverdin pigments and because of their conspicuousness, eggs with b...
-
Article
Microbial Diversity of Wild Bird Feathers Revealed throughCulture-Based and Culture-Independent Techniques
Despite recent interest in the interactions between birds and environmental microbes, the identities of the bacteria that inhabit the feathers of wild birds remain largely unknown. We used culture-based and cu...
-
Article
A simple and inexpensive chemical test for behavioral ecologists to determine the presence of carotenoid pigments in animal tissues
Animals use several different types of pigments to acquire their colorful ornaments. Knowing the types of pigments that generate animal colors often provides valuable information about the costs of develo** ...
