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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on June 23, 2004
Behavioral Ecology 2004 15(6):1003-1010; doi:10.1093/beheco/arh106
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Behavioral Ecology vol. 15 no. 6 © International Society for Behavioral Ecology 2004; all rights reserved

Modification of the visual background increases the conspicuousness of golden-collared manakin displays

J. Albert C. Uy and John A. Endler

Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA

Address correspondence to J. A. C. Uy, who is now at the Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA. E-mail: uy{at}sfsu.edu.

Effective visual communication requires signals that are easy to detect, transmit, receive, and discriminate. Animals can increase the probability that their visual signals would be detected by evolving signals that contrast with their visual background. Animals can further enhance this contrast by behaviorally modifying the existing visual background. Male golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus) clear leaf litter from the ground to form courts, which are used as display arenas. Using reflectance measures of the signal (male plumage) and the visual background (cleared court and adjacent litter), the irradiance measures of ambient light during display, and published measures of photoreceptor sensitivity of a Passerine, we test the hypothesis that court-clearing augments the contrast between male plumage and the visual background. We find that the chromatic and brightness contrasts of golden patches used during courtship are greater against the cleared court than against adjacent litter. In addition, we find that cleared courts provide a less variable background for these color patches, resulting in displays that consistently contrast the visual background. These results suggest that behavioral modification of the visual background may act to increase the conspicuousness of colorful male plumage during display, providing an explanation for why golden-collared manakins, and possibly other species, build or clear display courts.

Key words: chromatic contrasts, court-clearing, Manacus vitellinus, manakins, signaling, visual signals.


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