Carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration is associated with reduced male care in passerine birds

The immense diversity of plumage coloration exhibited by birds is the result of either pigments deposited in the feathers or microstructural arrangements of feather barbules. Some of the most common pigments are carotenoids, which produce bright yellow, orange, and red colors. Carotenoids differ from other pigments since birds cannot synthesize them de novo and must obtain them from the diet. Carotenoid pigments are usually associated with signaling and sexual selection, although they also have antioxidant properties and play a role in the immune response. Here, we hypothesize that carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration functions as a signal of a male's tendency to invest in offspring care because they play an important role in self-maintenance and may provide key information about individual quality, allowing females to obtain information about a male's tendency to invest in offspring care. Using phylogenetic comparative analyses across 349 passerine birds, we show that species that c..., Data were collected from published sources, including both primary reference works (e.g., Olson and Owens 2005; Thomas et al. 2014; Liker et al. 2015) and compendia such as the Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (del Hoyo et al. 2016; accessed between May and December 2016). 
Liker et al. (2015) compiled detailed information on relative investment by each sex in six components of avian parental care (nest building, incubation, nest guarding, chick brooding, chick feeding, and chick guarding (guarding and defending the brood post-hatching)) from reference books and published literature (references in Liker et al. 2015 updated in Gonzalez-Voyer et al. 2022). We focus here on only three components: nest building, incubation, and chick feeding, which are the ones for which information was available for the greatest number of species.
We used an existing dataset (Thomas et al. 2014) on the presence of carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration in all neornithine species. Presence (1)..., , # Data from: Carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration is associated with reduced male care in passerine birds

* Authors: Veronica Rincon Rubio
* Dataset Contributors: Veronica Rincon Rubio, Alejandro Gonzalez Voyer, Andras Liker, Tamas Szekely
* Date created: 2016-05-20
* Date modified: 2023-03-12
* Suggested Citations:
* Dataset citation:

Rincn-Rubio, V. A., Szkely, T., Liker, A., & Gonzalez-Voyer, A. 2023. Data from: Carotenoid-dependent plumage coloration is associated with reduced male care in passerine birds. Behavioral Ecology. [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0zpc86735](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0zpc86735)

## Contact Information

* Name: Alejandro Gonzalez Voyer
* Affiliations: Departamento de Ecologa Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecologa, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Circuito Exterior AP 70-275, Mxico, DF 04510, Mexico
* ORCID ID: [http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5072-1688](http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5072-1688)
* Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:alejandr...,