Ant-following behavior is correlated with plumage traits in African understory birds

Abstract

Ant-following behavior is a common phenomenon in birds of Neotropical and Afrotropical rainforests but yet little is known from Central Africa. We here report on the phenomenon in lowland rainforest in Cameroon, quantifying the strength of the interaction of different ant-following bird species with driver ants and test the hypothesis that higher levels of specialization in ant-following behavior are associated with dominance or aggression-dependent plumage and other morphological traits. Flock size varied between 1 and 11 individuals with a mean size of 5.34 ± 2.68 (mean ± SD) individuals occurring at the same time. The maximum number of species present during one raid observed was ten, whereas the minimum number was four with an overall species richness of 6.89 ± 2.1 species. The 21 attending bird species strongly varied in the degree of ant-following behavior. In an interspecific comparison, plumage traits such as the presence of a colored crown, eyespots, and bare skin around the eye, in combination with metatarsus length and weight, were significantly correlated with ant-following behavior. These results suggest that—in size and identity of species—ant-following bird assemblages in Central Africa are similar to those reported from East Africa. They also suggest that ant following favors the selection of traits that signal dominance in interactions between individuals struggling for valuable food resources in the forest understory.