2005/04/25 by Olle Håstad, Jonas Victorsson, Anders Ödeen · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Plant and animal studies #Avian ecology and behavior
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.0409228102
openalex publication_date 2005/04/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Sexual selection often favors brighter and exaggerated traits, which also increase the risk of detection by predators. Signals that are preferentially conspicuous to conspecifics would reduce the predation cost of signaling and, therefore, might facilitate the evolution of stronger sexual and social signals. This selective signaling is possible if predators and prey have differently tuned sensory systems. By using a retinal model to compare reflectance from the plumages of Swedish songbirds to the reflectance of their natural backgrounds, we found their color badges to be significantly more conspicuous to other songbirds (which have a UV-tuned visual system) than to raptors and corvids (which have a violet-tuned system) in both coniferous and deciduous forests, consistent with an adaptive private communication system.