Differences in feather structure between urban and forest great tits – constraint or adaptation?

Urbanization is one of the strongest habitat transforming processes today that has resulted in changes in the ecological conditions for wild populations. In birds, the limitation of natural food sources and a warmer microclimate in cities can potentially influence the development and functioning of the plumage that may have important fitness consequences. Despite its potential significance, the plumage structure of urban birds are largely unexplored and it is unclear whether and how they respond to urban ecological processes such as different constraints and selection pressures. In this study, we compared several structural properties of contour, primary and tail feathers between two forest and two urban great tit (Parus major) populations. Our results show that the urban environment affects only a few structural properties of feathers and only in the plumage of first-year birds. We found that both the plumulaceous and the pennaceous parts of their contour feathers are longer and have l...城市化是当前最为剧烈的生境改造过程之一，已导致野生种群的生态条件发生改变。在鸟类类群中，城市内天然食物资源的匮乏以及更为温暖的微气候，可能会对羽毛的发育与功能产生影响，进而带来关乎生存适合度的重要后果。尽管该议题具备潜在的研究价值，但目前学界对城市鸟类的羽毛结构仍鲜有探索，尚不清楚它们能否以及如何响应城市化带来的各类约束与选择压力等城市生态过程。本研究对比了两个森林种群与两个城市种群的大山雀（great tit，学名Parus major）的廓羽、初级飞羽及尾羽的多项结构特性。研究结果显示，城市环境仅会影响羽毛的部分结构特性，且该效应仅体现在一龄鸟的羽毛中。我们发现，其廓羽的绒羽部与翮羽部均更长，且……