Abstract
F6,30 = 1.748, p = 0.144; and green: F6,30= 1.085, p = 0.394). Common myna, however, showed a strong influence of red colour in their quantity judgment ( F6,30 = 2.922, p = 0.023) as they succeeded in choosing the largest amount of food between two cups, but not when offered food using green coloured mealworms ( F6,30 = 1.183, p = 0.342). In the next experiment, we hypothesised that both house crow and common myna will prefer red coloured food items over green coloured food items, when factors such as the amount of food is equal. We chose to test red and green colours because both colours play an important role in most avian food selections. Results showed that there were no significant differences in the selection of red or green coloured mealworms for both house crows ( F6,30 = 2.310, p = 0.06) and common myna ( F6,30 = 0.823, p = 0.561).
Highlights
Bright and coloured objects are more conspicuous from a distance and plays an important role in animal behaviour
Experiments 1 and 2 For experiment 1, involving red mealworms, the results show that there was no significant effect on the numerical abilities of house crows (ANOVA: F6‚30 = 1.748, p = 0.144) (Fig. 2[a])
Results from experiment 2 showed that green colour did not have any effect on the successful attempt for all food proportions for both house crow (ANOVA: F6‚30 = 1.085, p = 0.394) and common myna (ANOVA: F6‚30 = 1.183, p = 0.342)
Summary
Bright and coloured objects are more conspicuous from a distance and plays an important role in animal behaviour. Colours can be used as warning signals for insects (Schmidt & Schaefer 2004), courtship display in mating behaviour (Zuk 1992) and signal fruit maturity to attract avian seed dispersers (Willson & Whelan 1990; Murray et al 1993; Schmidt & Schaefer 2004). Colour appears as a more important feature in the category of food objects (Delorme et al 2000) if other factors such as taste, nutrition, and accessibility were the same (Willson & Whelan 1990). One of the significant aspects of the visual of birds is the sense of colour which played a role in community ecology, species interaction, seed dispersal, and plant pollination (Avery et al 1999). There are multiple studies that had been conducted since the last three decades to test the function and effect of fruit colour preferences by various species of birds such as Anna hummingbirds, Calypte anna; waxwings, Bombycilla cedrorum; American robin, Turdus migratorius; common crows, Corvus splendens; and common myna, Acridotheres tristis (Stiles 1976; McPherson 1988; Willson & Whelan 1990; Willson & Comet 1993; Willson 1994; Puckey et al 1996; Kelly & Marples 2004; Schaefer et al 2008; Rahman et al 2014)
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