Dressed for the weather: Tawny owl feather adaptations across a climatic gradient

Populations are presumed to be adapted to local environmental conditions via natural selection, with gene flow breaking up local adaptations. In birds, several aspects of feathers may reflect local adaptation; the insulation capacity of feathers may be greater in cold regions, and colouration, as darker feathers absorb more heat compared to lighter-coloured feathers. We studied feather properties (plumulaceous part of the feather, density of barbs and barbules) of tawny owls across nine populations covering a large part of the species’ European range (9-52 individuals per population) as well as their plumage colour, scored as dark (brown) vs light (grey) morphs. We compared these traits' phenotypic divergence (PST) with the divergence expected based on genetic drift (FST) inferred using eight microsatellites. The FST was low (0.022; 95% CI 0.005-0.039), and most feather structures' phenotypic divergence (PST) exceeded the FST. However, phenotypic divergence in plumage colour was low an..., , , # Data from: Dressed for the weather: Tawny owl feather adaptations across a climatic gradient

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1vhhmgr4g](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1vhhmgr4g)

## Description of the data and file structure

Datasets for the manuscript \"**Dressed for the weather: Tawny owl feather adaptations across a climatic gradient**\". Data was collected from tawny owls' feathers (length of the feather, length of the plumulaceous part) and from microscope pictures (barbs and barbules number per cm or mm).

File list

* meantempmeanprec.csv
* plot_prop_variance.csv
* Barbules.csv
* Barbs.csv
* measures2023clean3.csv

File description

* meantempmeanprec.csv: Mean temperature and precipitation for each winter month in each country of the study. Includes the country, the month, the mean temperature in degrees Celsius, and the mean precipitation in mm.

* plot_prop_variance.csv: proportion of variance explained by the length of the plumulaceous part of the chest, the back, the number ...,