Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions

Avian plumage colouration is an iconic example of trait variability among species. Sexual, social, and natural selection, and the environmental variables modulating them, may explain this variability. So far, most research exploring environmental effects on the variability of plumage colouration has focused on the variation in overall plumage darkness. Research on other aspects of colour variation, such as the diversity of colours exhibited by a species (i.e., colour complexity), is limited and has provided inconsistent results. Besides, colour complexity has mostly been analysed at the whole plumage level, despite the possibility that different plumage patches may be sensitive to different environmental factors. Here, we quantify male and female coloration in 58 species of the family Paridae, and use multi-predictor Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models to estimate the relationship of coloration with environment and certain species-specific characteristics. We consider both the colouratio..., , , # Data for: Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xg6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xg6)

## Description of the data and file structure

Dataset required to replicate the analyses from: *Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions.* The dataset contains information of colour complexity in the paridae family taken using a spectrophotometer and the specimens  available at the Natural History Museum at Tring. Besides, it also contains several climatic and biotic variables specific to each species taken from public sources (UICN, WorldClim, AVONET...). 

### Files and variables

#### File: bbdd\_chest.csv

**Description:** Data for the specific analysis exploring the variation in **chest** colour complexity 

##### Variables

* mat: Mean annual temperature (ºC)
* p: Annual precipit...,