ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2021
The evolution of darker wings in seabirds in relation to temperature-dependent flight efficiency.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Color and Near-Infrared Reflectance Covary in Distinct Ways Across Taxa.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Viewing conditions predict evolutionary diversity in avian plumage colour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Transitions between colour mechanisms affect speciation dynamics and range distributions of birds.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Role of body size and shape in animal camouflage.Ecology and evolution · 2024Review
- A framework to unlock marine bird energetics.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
- Allometric wing growth links parental care to pterosaur giantism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Dark wing pigmentation as a mechanism for improved flight efficiency in the Larinae.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Contrasting coloured ventral wings are a visual collision avoidance signal in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Seabirds have evolved numerous adaptations that allow them to thrive under hostile conditions. Many seabirds share similar colour patterns, often with dark wings, suggesting that their coloration might be adaptive. Interestingly, these darker wings become hotter when birds fly under high solar irradiance, and previous studies on aerofoils have provided evidence that aerofoil surface heating can affect the ratio between lift and drag, i.e. flight efficiency. However, whether this effect benefits birds remains unknown. Here, we first used phylogenetic analyses to show that strictly oceanic seabirds with a higher glide performance (optimized by reduced sink rates, i.e. the altitude lost over time) have evolved darker wings, potentially as an additional adaptation to improve flight. Using wind tunnel experiments, we then showed that radiative heating of bird wings indeed improves their flight efficiency. These results illustrate that seabirds may have evolved wing pigmentation in part through selection for flight performance under extreme ocean conditions. We suggest that other bird clades, particularly long-distance migrants, might also benefit from this effect and therefore might show similar evolutionary trajectories. These findings may also serve as a guide for bioinspired innovations in aerospace and aviation, especially in low-speed regimes.
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