To colour a bird: The evolution of carotenoid-based colouration in passerines is shaped by sexual selection, ecology and life history.

Abstract

Research Highlight: Delhey, K., Valcu, M., Dale, J., & Kempenaers, B. (2022). The evolution of carotenoid-based plumage colours in passerine birds. Journal of Animal Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13791. Carotenoids, a class of colour pigments, are responsible for red, yellow and orange hues in nature. They play an important role in visual animals, and specially birds, where dietary carotenoids can act as honest sexual signals. Long-standing interest in the function of carotenoid-based colours has led to different hypotheses for their evolutionary drivers. Yet, comparative studies testing the generality of these hypotheses have been previously limited in phylogenetic scope or resolution. In a recent study, Delhey et al. (2022) combined sexual dichromatism, life history and environmental data to investigate the evolution of carotenoid-based colouration in the largest avian radiation, the passerines (Order: Passeriformes). The authors show that the expression of carotenoid-based colours depends on environmental availability, dietary content and body size. They also show that red carotenoids are more often evolutionarily and metabolically derived, and suggest different colours are favoured by natural and sexual selection. These findings shine new light on commonly held hypotheses of carotenoid-colour evolution and contribute to our understanding of how phenotypic diversity evolves.