The Effects of Plumage Coloration and Cooing on Mate Attraction in Diamond Doves (Geopelia cuneata) 

Victoria Hope

Department of Biology, York College of Pennsylvania

(http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/diamond-dove-geopelia-cuneata/pair-hen-has-brownish-tinge-plumage)Introduction

In birds, females prefer males with more brightly colored plumage, in both natural and laboratory settings (Saetre et al. 1994).

Males with more elaborate songs have greater reproductive success (Mennill et al. 2006).

There is a direct correlation between the amount of time a female spends with a male and how attracted she is to him (Witte 2006).

No known studies have examined the mating behavior of diamond doves.

Knowledge on what affects mate attraction will be important in better understanding this species and will be useful for breeders rearing them in captivity.

Hypotheses

Females will be more attracted to the lighter colored male than the darker colored male.

Females will be more attracted to the cooing male than the silent male.

Methods

A cage was constructed containing a female compartment, divided into 5 equal sections, and 2 male compartments, both divided into 2 equal sections.

10 females and 2 males were purchased from various breeders in New Mexico and Virginia.

One of the males was of dark, wild type, coloration while the other was of light, silver, coloration.

To examine plumage, the dark and light males were placed into the male compartments.

To examine cooing, identically colored male decoys were placed into the male compartments, with a speaker behind one male.

For both experiments, females were placed into the center compartment.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Rehnberg for his assistance and for mentoring me throughout this process.

References

Mennill, Daniel J., et al. 2006. Male house finches with elaborate songs have higher reproductive performance. Ethology [Serial online] 112: 174-180. Available from: Academic Search Premier.

Saetre, G., Dale, S. and Slagsvold, T. 1994. Female pied flycatchers prefer brightly coloured males. Amimal Behavior

Witte, K. 2006. Time spent with a male is a good indicator of mate preference in female zebra finches. Ethology, Ecology and Evolution. [serial online] 18: 195-204

Discussion

Neither hypotheses were supported by the results.

Females appeared to prefer the section of the cage closest to the silent decoy.

It is possible that this breed does not have a preference for plumage coloration in male mates.

During the plumage trials, females may have been pacing, rather than selecting a mate.

The environment in which the experiment was conducted may have been too loud and/or distracting, which may have influenced the results.

Future research

Examine effects of eye ring coloration and size to better understand this breed and its mating preference.

Allot more time for trials to allow birds to better adjust to their environment, which will possibly produce different results.

Determine a way to examine the effects, if any, tail display has on mate preference for this breed.

All trials were recorded for one hour, and video tapes were reviewed to determine the amount of time, and number of times the female was in each section of her cage.

Graphs were constructed with a 95% confidence intervals, using PRISM (Graphpad .com) software.

Results

Females spent significantly more time in the section closest to the silent decoy , section 5, than they did next to the cooing decoy, section 1 (Figure 1).

Females entered into the section of the cage closest to the decoy associated with the speaker, section 1, the least amount of times, during the cooing trials (Figure 2).

During the plumage trails, females spent significantly more time in the sections closest to the dark and light colored males, sections 1 and 5 (Figure 3).

There was no significant difference in the number of times females crossed into the section closest to the dark colored male, section 1, and the section closest to the light colored male, section 5 (Figure 4).

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Figure 1. Cooing Trials: Time females spent in each sectionof their cage, with 1 indicating the section closest to thedecoy associated with the speaker, and 5 indicating thesection furthest away. 95% confidence intervals indicate thatfemales spent significantly more time in section 5, incomparison to section 1. However,there is no significantdifference between amount of time spent in all sections.

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Figure 2. Cooing Trials: Number of entires females madeinto each section of their cage, with 1 indicating thesection closest to the decoy associated with the speaker,and 5 indicating the section furthest away. 95% confidenceintervals indicate a significant difference between thenumber of entries into section 5, compared to section 1.However, there are no significant differences between thenumber of entries into all other sections

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Figure 3. Plumage Trials: Amount of time females spent ineach section of their cage, with 1 indicating the sectionclosest to the dark colored male, and 5 indicating thesection closest to the light colored male. 95% confidenceintervals indicate a significant difference between theamount of time spent in sections 1 and 5, compared tosection 2, 3, and 4. However, there are no signifficantdifferences in the amount of time spent in all othersections.

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Figure 4. Plumage Trials: Number of entires femalesmade into each section of their cage, with 1 indicating thesection closest to the dark colored male, and 5 indicatingthe section closest to the light colored male. 95%confidence intervals indicate a significat differencebetween the number of entries into section 5, comparedto sections 2, 3 and 4. However, there are no significantdifferences in entry numbers for all other sections.

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