Climbing Adaptations Data

This table contains characters associated with tree-trunk climbing observed in study skins of 290 of the 293 currently recognized species of Furnariidae. Most specimens were examined at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. For each specimen, I recorded the morphology of seven characters of the tail and one character of the foot that have functional significance for tail-assisted climbing. For each character, states were coded such that 0 represents no specialization for climbing (the predominant state in passerines) and the other states represent an increasing degree of specialization. Character and character states are described in Table 1 of the associated article. Ambiguous and polymorphic conditions were coded with standard symbols (/ and & respectively). In addition to discrete characters, I used measurements of the length of one of the central tail feathers and the diameter (dorso-ventral) of its rachis at the midpoint to calculate relative rachis thickness as a percentage of the total length of the feather. Finally, a composite index of climbing adaptations for each species was calculated as the sum of the eight discrete characters plus relative rachis thickness all divided by 16.