SynthesisDie Naturwissenschaften2015
Direct benefits of mate choice: a meta-analysis of plumage colour and offspring feeding rates in birds.
Synthesis in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Synthesis of Nature's Extravaganza: An Augmented Meta-Meta-Analysis on (Putative) Sexual Signals.Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Reliability of meta-analyses in ecology and evolution: (mostly) good news from a case study on sexual signals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Plumage color degradation indicates reproductive effort: an experiment.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Male Red-crested Cardinal plumage coloration is associated with parental abilities and breeding performance.Scientific reports · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mate choice is generally costly to the choosy sex, so fitness benefits must counterbalance these costs. Genetic benefits of choice are widely examined and have received overall support. Direct benefits such as high quality parental care by highly ornamented individuals are widely assumed to be important but are less frequently tested, theoretically debated, and their support in the recent literature is unknown. Furthermore, in taxa where both sexes provide care, the preferential investment of the partner in relation to ornamentation may reduce own investment and modify apparent parental care quality. In a phylogenetically controlled meta-analysis, we collated correlative results from birds concerning parental plumage coloration and the nestling feeding rates of the ornament bearer and its partner. Overall evidence was weak for signalling of parental care quality and somewhat stronger for preferential partner investment. Surprisingly, the sex of the signaller and the type of plumage colour seemed to exert weak effects on the signalling of parental care quality. Finally, there was a group of cases with opposite relationships of care and ornamentation in the two parties. We found that this group arose predominately from preferential partner investment in relation to ornamentation, with concomitant, but weaker, reduction of own investment. We conclude that the effect of partner investment on parental care indication seems system-specific and needs further study.
Indexed as
Identifiers
26385007What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.