Data from: It's not just what you have, but how you use it: solar-positional and behavioral effects on hummingbird color appearance during courtship

Animals exhibit a diversity of colors that can play key roles in mating interactions. However, we presently lack an understanding of the relative importance of the environment, behavior, and natural reflective properties of colorful ornaments on an individual’s color appearance during mating-displays. We investigated interactions among structurally-based plumage, display environments, and courtship shuttle displays of male Costa's hummingbirds (Calypte costae) to test how these elements may differentially contribute to color appearance during shuttles. Male position relative to the sun was the strongest predictor of color appearance, with shuttle behaviors and feather reflectance playing smaller roles. Further, male solar orientation and shuttling behavior (e.g. shuttle width) were repeatable among displays, whereas male color appearance mostly was not. These results emphasize the contributions of behavior and environment to color-signaling and suggest that relying on reflectance measurements of colorful ornaments alone provides an incomplete picture of ecologically relevant visual phenotypes of displaying animals.动物的体色丰富多样，这类体色在交配互动中可发挥关键作用。然而目前学界尚未明确，在动物交配展示过程中，环境、行为以及彩色饰羽的自然反射特性，分别对个体体色呈现效果的相对影响程度。本研究以科斯塔蜂鸟（Calypte costae）雄性个体为研究对象，探究其结构色羽饰（structurally-based plumage）、展示环境与求爱穿梭展示（courtship shuttle displays）之间的相互作用，以检验这些因素在穿梭展示期间对个体体色呈现效果的差异化贡献。研究结果显示，雄性个体相对于太阳的位置是体色呈现效果的最强预测因子，而穿梭行为与羽毛反射特性的影响相对较小。进一步分析表明，雄性个体的太阳朝向与穿梭行为（如穿梭宽度）在多次展示中具有可重复性，但其体色呈现效果大多不具备重复性。本研究结果凸显了行为与环境在体色信号传递中的重要作用，同时表明，仅依靠彩色饰羽的反射测量数据，无法完整反映展示动物在生态学层面相关的视觉表型（visual phenotypes）特征。