Data and scritp for: <b>Feather corticosterone is not associated with feather growth rate or quality across tropical and temperate passerines</b>

Description and metadata for:'Kauzál et al.: Feather corticosterone is not associated with feather growth rate or quality across tropical and temperate passerines' Author responsible for the repositoryOndřej Kauzál Institute of Vertebrate Biology Czech Academy of Sciences [e-mail] Data originStudy presents original data on corticosterone deposited in tail feathers (fCORT) in tropical and temperate passerine species collected by the team of authors, supplemented with life-history data obtained from literature (feather growth rate (FGR), fault bars occurence (FBO), migration distance, elevational ranges and phylogeny). Data files and their metadata:Metadata for the file: kauzal_et_al_2026b_main_data.txtDescription:A text file containing the individual data used in this study, separated by tab ("\t"). The file contains following variables: Variables:id -- unique identifier of each individuallatin -- latin species namespecies -- latin species name used by brms modelanimal -- latin species name used by brms modelsex -- individual sex (m: male; f: female)rectrix -- variable reffered to in text as "BMC", combination of breeding and moulting latitude with three levelsrun -- LC-MS/MS run IDcort.abs -- absolute corticosterone measurement from a single sample [pg]mass.field -- body mass of an individual when captured [g]rhachis.length -- feather length (without calamus) [mm]rhachis.mass -- feather mass (withou calamus) [g]g.rate.final -- growth rate of a given feather [mm/day]g.time.final -- growth time of a given feather [days]fb.occ -- whether there were some fault bars present on a given feather (0: no fault bars, 1: one or more fault bars present)migr.dist.lat -- migration distance [1000km]capture.elevation -- elevation of capture of an individual [km a.s.l.; only tropical species]ebird.midpoint -- elevational distribution midpoint of a species [km a.s.l.; only tropical species]Data sources:ebird.midpoint -- Tomášek et al. 2022migr.dist.lat -- BirdLife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World (2018) (see Supplementary Material and Methods for its estimation)rhachis.length, g.rate.final, g.time.final, fb.occ -- Horák et al. 2022all others own dataMetadata for the file: kauzal_et_al_2026b_ind-rpt_data.txtDescription:A text file containing the individual fCORT measurements for left and right feather of 46 individuals, 25 species, separated by tab ("\t"). The file contains following variables: Variables:id -- id of an individualid.2 -- id of a single featherrhachis.mass -- mass of a feather (without calamus) [g]cort.abs -- absolute value of cort extracted from a feather [pg]species -- latin species nameMetadata for the file: kauzal_et_al_2026b_main_data.txtDescription:A text file containing the individual data used in this study, separated by tab ("\t"). The file contains following variables: Variables:latin -- latin species namemass -- body mass [g]Metadata for the file: kauzal_et_al_2026b_model_predictors.txtDescription:A text file containing information about model formulas, predictors, response variables and dataset of all models used in this study. This dataset is used to batch-generate all the models in this study. The columns are separated by tab ("\t"). The file contains following variables: Variables:response -- Response variable used in the model.predictors -- Predictors used in the model.path -- Path to the directory where results are stored.model.name -- Name of the model generated.type1 -- Type of the model (CORT/FGR/FBO etc.; used for subsetting)type2 -- Whether model is found in main text or in supplementary files.dataset -- Dataset used to generate the model.Metadata for the file: horak_2022-knud.treDescription:A phylogenetic tree in NEWICK format generated in Horák et al. (2022) used in this study. CodeIn addition to the data files, there are R code files uploaded. The files contain all the code used to generate the results in this study. The code is intended to run in the following order: 00_start here.Rproj -- starts a new R project and set working directory to the current directory (all further scripts expect that the working directory is set to the directory where all the files are stored)01_data_preparation.R -- data preparation (generates data file used by all later scripts; calculates averages, z.scores and variables used by later scripts)02a_repeatability.R -- calculates repeatability of fCORT measurements, correlations between certain variables, and simple effect and adjusted single effect (ASE) models (uses data file generated by script "01_data_preparation.R" and "model_predictors.txt")02b_modelling.R -- generation of all models in main text and supplementary information (uses data file generated by script "01_data_preparation.R" and "model_predictors.txt")02c_post_hoc.R -- estimating the "probability of direction" (see main text) and compares models using loo package (uses data files generated by script "02b_modelling.R")02d_priors.R -- script used to asses the effect of priors on the elevational trend (used during reviews)03_plotting.R -- visualisation (uses models generated by script "02a_repeatability.R" and "02b_modelling.R")FundingThis study was funded through Czech Science Foundation grants (GA17-24782S and GA25-17505S) to T.A. AcknowledgementsWe would like to thank to everyone who helped with the data collection in the field, namely Jaromír Čejka, Marek Brindzák, Kateřina Šimonová and Lukáš Bobek. Also, we are very grateful to the Chief of Bokwaongo, Chief of Bakingili, Francis Luma Ewome and the rest of Bokwaongo community for their help with the field work in Cameroon. ReferencesBirdLife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World (2018) Bird Species Distribution Maps of the World. Version 2018.1. Horák et al. (2022). Feather growth and quality across passerines is explained by breeding rather than moulting latitude. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2404 Tomášek et al. (2022). Latitudinal but not elevational variation in blood glucose level is linked to life history across passerine birds. Ecology Letters: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14097 Editing history: Edited on 19th March 2026: editing name of article, changing filenames of files (and therefore also filenames in scripts), adding script 02d_priors.R. No other change to data or scripts themselves.