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Data from: Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions

López-Idiáquez, David1; Doutrelant, Claire2; Pearman, Peter B.3

Published Jun 26, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.sn02v6xg6

Data files

Jun 26, 2025 version files 304.15 KB

Abstract

Avian plumage colouration is an iconic example of trait variability among species. Sexual, social, and natural selection, and the environmental variables modulating them, may explain this variability. So far, most research exploring environmental effects on the variability of plumage colouration has focused on the variation in overall plumage darkness. Research on other aspects of colour variation, such as the diversity of colours exhibited by a species (i.e., colour complexity), is limited and has provided inconsistent results. Besides, colour complexity has mostly been analysed at the whole plumage level, despite the possibility that different plumage patches may be sensitive to different environmental factors. Here, we quantify male and female coloration in 58 species of the family Paridae, and use multi-predictor Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models to estimate the relationship of coloration with environment and certain species-specific characteristics. We consider both the colouration of the whole body and the coloration of four separate colour patches (head, chest, back, and wing). We find that Paridae species in climates with greater seasonality and intermediate temperatures present more complex colouration than do species in other climates. In addition, males, relatively small species, and species with relatively greater sexual dichromatism have more complex plumage colouration than otherwise. We find that the numbers of predators and sympatric conspecifics are more associated with female coloration than with male coloration. Finally, the strength of associations with colour complexity are specific to each plumage region: species recognition, beak shape, and climate variables related to competition for reproductive resources (i.e. seasonality of temperature and precipitation), are more strongly associated with colouration complexity of the head and breast than with that of the back and wing. Overall, our results illustrate the importance of climatic and social variables, the link between colour complexity and dichromatism in both sexes, and the analysis of distinct plumage areas for understanding global patterns of colouration complexity and the processes that promote them.