SynthesisBiology letters2021
Colourful traits in female birds relate to individual condition, reproductive performance and male-mate preferences: a meta-analytic approach.
Synthesis in Biology letters, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Synthesis of Nature's Extravaganza: An Augmented Meta-Meta-Analysis on (Putative) Sexual Signals.Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Ornaments are equally informative in male and female birds.Nature communications · 2022Pooled it
- Colourful traits in female birds relate to individual condition, reproductive performance and male-mate preferences: a meta-analytic approach.Biology letters · 2021Pooled it
- Carotenoid-based ornaments predict survival in male but not female birds: A meta-analysis.iScience · 2026Article
- Article
- Reliability of meta-analyses in ecology and evolution: (mostly) good news from a case study on sexual signals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Predation affects the evolution of sex-specific longevity.Biology letters · 2024Article
- The role of condition on sexual selection in the seed bugEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Family resemblance in color-patch size is not affected by stress experience in a cichlid fish.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- On the resolution of sexual conflict over shared traits.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Plumage and eggshell colouration covary with the level of sex-specific parental contributions to nest building in birds.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2024Article
- Genomic data reveal unexpected relatedness between a brown female Eastern Bluebird and her brood.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Ornaments indicate parasite load only if they are dynamic or parasites are contagious.Evolution letters · 2023Article
- Oestradiol reduces female bill colour in a mutually ornamented bird.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Gene expression in male and female stickleback from populations with convergent and divergent throat coloration.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Does egg carotenoid improve larval quality in Arctic charr (Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Urbanization enhances ornament expression in a common waterbird.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Colourful traits in females are suggested to have evolved and be maintained by sexual selection. Although several studies have evaluated this idea, support is still equivocal. Evidence has been compiled in reviews, and a handful of quantitative syntheses has explored cumulative support for the link between condition and specific colour traits in males and females. However, understanding the potential function of females' colourful traits in sexual communication has not been the primary focus of any of those previous studies. Here, using a meta-analytic approach, we find that evidence from empirical studies in birds supports the idea that colourful female ornaments are positively associated with residual mass and immune response, clutch size and male-mate preferences. Hence, colourful traits in female birds likely evolved and are maintained by sexual selection as condition-dependent signals.
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