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Lack Of Assortative Mating For Tail, Body Size, Or Condition In The Elaborate Monomorphic Turquoise-Browed Motmot (Eumomota Superciliosa), Troy G. Murphy
Lack Of Assortative Mating For Tail, Body Size, Or Condition In The Elaborate Monomorphic Turquoise-Browed Motmot (Eumomota Superciliosa), Troy G. Murphy
Troy G Murphy
Elaborate male and female plumage can be maintained by mutual sexual selection and function as a mate-choice or status signal in both sexes. Both male and female Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) have long tails that terminate in widened blue-and-black rackets that appear to hang, unattached, below the body of the bird. I tested whether mutual sexual selection maintains the Turquoise-browedMotmot’s elaborate tail plumage by testing the prediction that mating occurs in an assortative manner for tail plumage. I also tested whether assortative mating occurs for body size, a potential measure of dominance, and for phenotypic condition, a measure of individual …
Lack Of Assortative Mating For Tail, Body Size, Or Condition In The Elaborate Monomorphic Turquoise-Browed Motmot (Eumomota Superciliosa), Troy G. Murphy
Lack Of Assortative Mating For Tail, Body Size, Or Condition In The Elaborate Monomorphic Turquoise-Browed Motmot (Eumomota Superciliosa), Troy G. Murphy
Troy G Murphy
Elaborate male and female plumage can be maintained by mutual sexual selection and function as a mate-choice or status signal in both sexes. Both male and female Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) have long tails that terminate in widened blue-and-black rackets that appear to hang, unattached, below the body of the bird. I tested whether mutual sexual selection maintains the Turquoise-browedMotmot’s elaborate tail plumage by testing the prediction that mating occurs in an assortative manner for tail plumage. I also tested whether assortative mating occurs for body size, a potential measure of dominance, and for phenotypic condition, a measure of individual …
Racketed Tail Of The Male And Female Turquoise-Browed Motmot: Male But Not Female Tail Length Correlates With Pairing Success, Performance, And Reproductive Success, Troy Murphy
Troy G Murphy
Both males and females of many avian species maintain elaborate plumage traits, and elaborate monomorphic plumage may convey adaptive benefits to one or both sexes as inter- or intraspecific signals. Both sexes of the turquoise-browed motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) are elaborately plumed with long racket-tipped tail. I investigated whether the racketed tail functions as a sexually selected signal in one or both sexes by testing the predictions that males and/or females with the largest tails have: (1) greater pairing success, (2) greater reproductive performance (clutch-initiation date, clutch size, and hatching success), and (3) greater reproductive success. Yearling males with longer denuded …
Predator-Elicited Visual Signal: Why The Turquoise-Browed Motmot Wag-Displays Its Racketed Tail, Troy Murphy
Predator-Elicited Visual Signal: Why The Turquoise-Browed Motmot Wag-Displays Its Racketed Tail, Troy Murphy
Troy G Murphy
Both sexes of the turquoise-browed motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) perform a wag-display in the presence of predators, whereby their long racketed tail is repeatedly rocked side-to-side in a pendulous fashion. I tested 3 hypotheses for the function of the predator-elicited wag-display: 1) pursuit-deterrent signal, 2) warning alarm signal, and 3) self-preservation alarm signal. These hypotheses were evaluated by testing whether the presence of potential receivers (kin, conspecifics, mate) modified the way in which the wag-display was performed. Data on wag-display were collected when I experimentally presented predators to motmots and when naturally occurring predators were observed at nesting colonies. The wag-display …