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1 May 2012 Juvenal Plumage Polymorphism in Yellow Warblers is Not Associated with Sex
Vanya G. Rohwer, Frances Bonier, Paul R. Martin
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Abstract

Polymorphisms of the juvenal plumage in birds have received little study in comparison to other plumages. We investigate a polymorphism in the juvenal plumage of the Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) in southeastern Ontario, Canada. Yellow Warblers in juvenal plumage show either yellow or white plumage on their lower ventral surface of the neck, breast, and belly, and these differences have been speculated to be associated with sex. We tested the hypothesis that juvenal plumage color varies with sex by using blood samples to molecularly sex 10 yellow and 14 white nestlings. We found no relationship between plumage color and sex (yellow nestlings: 70% male, 30% female; white nestlings: 64% male, 36% female). Using the same 24 nestlings that we sexed, we measured feather color with a spectrometer and found that white and yellow morphs differ significantly in reflectance spectra of red and yellow chroma. Of 66 nestlings whose plumage color we visually inspected in the wild, 73% were white and 27% were yellow, showing that white nestlings are more common than yellow in our study population. We propose alternative explanations for the possible significance of yellow and white polymorphism in the juvenal plumage of the Yellow Warbler.

© 2012 by The Cooper Ornithological Society. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp.
Vanya G. Rohwer, Frances Bonier, and Paul R. Martin "Juvenal Plumage Polymorphism in Yellow Warblers is Not Associated with Sex," The Condor 114(2), 407-411, (1 May 2012). https://doi.org/10.1525/cond.2012.110086
Received: 11 June 2011; Accepted: 1 November 2011; Published: 1 May 2012
KEYWORDS
carotenoids
lutein
nestling
plumage polymorphism
Setophaga petechia
Yellow Warbler
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