Kathryn N. DePinto’s research while affiliated with Arizona State University and other places

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Publications (1)


Back to the future: does previously grown ornamental colouration in male House Finches reveal mate quality at the time of pair formation?
  • Article

June 2022

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36 Reads

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6 Citations

Journal of Ornithology

Kathryn N. DePinto

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Animals use diverse signal types (e.g. visual, auditory) to honestly advertise their genotypic and/or phenotypic quality to prospective mates or rivals. Behavioural displays and other dynamically updateable signals (e.g. songs, vibrations) can reliably reveal an individual’s quality in real-time, but it is unclear whether more fixed traits like feather colouration, which is often developed months before breeding, still reveal an individual’s quality at the time of signal use. To address this gap, we investigated if various indices of health and condition—including body condition (residual body mass), poxvirus infection, degree of habitat urbanization, and circulating levels of ketones, glucose, vitamins, and carotenoids—were related to the expression of male plumage colouration at the start of the spring breeding season in wild male House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), a species in which many studies have demonstrated a link between plumage redness and the health and condition of individuals at the time the feathers are grown in late summer and autumn. We found that, at the time of pair formation, plumage hue was correlated with body condition, such that redder males were in better condition (i.e. higher residual mass). Also, as in previous studies, we found that rural males had redder plumage; however, urban males had more saturated plumage. In sum, these results reveal that feather colouration developed long before breeding still can be indicative to choosy mates of a male’s current condition and suggest that females who prefer to mate with redder males may also gain proximate material benefits (e.g. better incubation provisioning) by mating with these individuals in good current condition.

Citations (1)


... On the other hand, environmental sensitivity of color patterns includes responses to social stimulation (Dey et al., 2015;Dijkstra et al., 2007), immunological challenges (Houde & Torio, 1992;Mougeot et al., 2010), and nutrition (Grether et al., 1999). Environmentally plastic body coloration can therefore relate to body condition in "real-time," but in addition to reflecting current condition, body color may also indicate past conditions dating back to the previous molt of an adult bird (DePinto & McGraw, 2022) or to various stages of its ontogenetic development (DeKogel & Prijs, 1996;Hubbard et al., 2015;Naguib & Nemitz, 2007;Wilson et al., 2019). Since diverse physiological and cognitive properties can likewise covary with conditions experienced during early development (Metcalfe & Monaghan, 2001;Monaghan, 2008), early life-induced variation in body color is a potentially relevant cue in mate choice and competitive interactions later in life (Naguib & Nemitz, 2007;Royle et al., 2005). ...

Reference:

Family resemblance in color‐patch size is not affected by stress experience in a cichlid fish
Back to the future: does previously grown ornamental colouration in male House Finches reveal mate quality at the time of pair formation?
  • Citing Article
  • June 2022

Journal of Ornithology