The Modelling of Avian Visual Perception Predicts Behavioural Rejection Responses to Foreign Egg Colours

Overview

Journal Biol Lett

Specialty Biology

Date 2008 Jul 3

PMID 18593669

Citations 32

Authors

Phillip Cassey

Marcel Honza

Tomas Grim

Mark E Hauber

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

How do birds tell the colours of their own and foreign eggs apart? We demonstrate that perceptual modelling of avian visual discrimination can predict behavioural rejection responses to foreign eggs in the nest of wild birds. We use a photoreceptor noise-limited colour opponent model of visual perception to evaluate its accuracy as a predictor of behavioural rates of experimental egg discrimination in the song thrush Turdus philomelos. The visual modelling of experimental and natural eggshell colours suggests that photon capture from the ultraviolet and short wavelength-sensitive cones elicits egg rejection decisions in song thrushes, while inter-clutch variation of egg coloration provides sufficient contrasts for detecting conspecific parasitism in this species. Biologically realistic sensory models provide an important tool for relating variability of behavioural responses to perceived phenotypic variation.

Citing Articles

Attractive egg color? Red eggs facilitate egg acceptance in a cavity-nesting host.

Liu J, Wang X, Liang W Curr Zool. 2024; 70(1):112-114.

PMID: 38476137 PMC: 10926254. DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoad003.

Sensory collectives in natural systems.

Williams H, Sridhar V, Hurme E, Gall G, Borrego N, Finerty G Elife. 2023; 12.

PMID: 38019274 PMC: 10686622. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.88028.

Biogeographic history, egg colouration, and habitat selection in Turdus thrushes (Aves: Turdidae).

Nagy J, Fulmer A, Loki V, Ruiz-Raya F, Hauber M Biol Futur. 2023; 74(4):467-474.

PMID: 37919466 DOI: 10.1007/s42977-023-00191-2.

Decision rules for egg-color-based rejection by two cavity-nesting hosts of the brown-headed cowbird.

Di Giovanni A, Villa J, Stanback M, Thompson C, Sakaluk S, Hauber M J Exp Biol. 2023; 226(14).

PMID: 37357579 PMC: 10399979. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.245188.

A review of the cues used for rejecting foreign eggs from the nest by the Eurasian blackbird ().

Fulmer A, Hauber M Ecol Evol. 2022; 12(5):e8886.

PMID: 35571754 PMC: 9077020. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8886.

References

Hart N, Partridge J, Cuthill I, Bennett A . Visual pigments, oil droplets, ocular media and cone photoreceptor distribution in two species of passerine bird: the blue tit (Parus caeruleus L.) and the blackbird (Turdus merula L.). J Comp Physiol A. 2000; 186(4):375-87. DOI: 10.1007/s003590050437. View

Hunt S, Kilner R, Langmore N, Bennett A . Conspicuous, ultraviolet-rich mouth colours in begging chicks. Proc Biol Sci. 2003; 270 Suppl 1:S25-8. PMC: 1698012. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2003.0009. View

Kelber A, Vorobyev M, Osorio D . Animal colour vision--behavioural tests and physiological concepts. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2003; 78(1):81-118. DOI: 10.1017/s1464793102005985. View

Hart N, Vorobyev M . Modelling oil droplet absorption spectra and spectral sensitivities of bird cone photoreceptors. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2005; 191(4):381-92. DOI: 10.1007/s00359-004-0595-3. View

Cassey P, Ewen J, Blackburn T, Hauber M, Vorobyev M, Marshall N . Eggshell colour does not predict measures of maternal investment in eggs of Turdus thrushes. Naturwissenschaften. 2008; 95(8):713-21. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-008-0376-x. View

Moskat C, Hauber M . Conflict between egg recognition and egg rejection decisions in common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) hosts. Anim Cogn. 2007; 10(4):377-86. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-007-0071-x. View

Hoover J, Robinson S . Retaliatory mafia behavior by a parasitic cowbird favors host acceptance of parasitic eggs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007; 104(11):4479-83. PMC: 1838626. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0609710104. View

Cuthill I, Bennett A, Partridge J, Maier E . Plumage Reflectance and the Objective Assessment of Avian Sexual Dichromatism. Am Nat. 2018; 153(2):183-200. DOI: 10.1086/303160. View

Hart N . The visual ecology of avian photoreceptors. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2001; 20(5):675-703. DOI: 10.1016/s1350-9462(01)00009-x. View

10.

Vorobyev M, Osorio D . Receptor noise as a determinant of colour thresholds. Proc Biol Sci. 1998; 265(1394):351-8. PMC: 1688899. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0302. View

11.

Govardovskii V, Fyhrquist N, Reuter T, Kuzmin D, Donner K . In search of the visual pigment template. Vis Neurosci. 2000; 17(4):509-28. DOI: 10.1017/s0952523800174036. View

12.

Goldsmith T, Butler B . Color vision of the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus): hue matches, tetrachromacy, and intensity discrimination. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2005; 191(10):933-51. DOI: 10.1007/s00359-005-0024-2. View

13.

Vorobyev M, Osorio D, Bennett A, Marshall N, Cuthill I . Tetrachromacy, oil droplets and bird plumage colours. J Comp Physiol A. 1998; 183(5):621-33. DOI: 10.1007/s003590050286. View

14.

Cherry M, Bennett A . Egg colour matching in an African cuckoo, as revealed by ultraviolet-visible reflectance spectrophotometry. Proc Biol Sci. 2001; 268(1467):565-71. PMC: 1088641. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2000.1414. View

15.

Schaefer H, Schaefer V, Vorobyev M . Are fruit colors adapted to consumer vision and birds equally efficient in detecting colorful signals?. Am Nat. 2009; 169 Suppl 1:S159-69. DOI: 10.1086/510097. View