Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2021 April 5

= April 5 =

evolutionary purpose of bright parrot plumage
Right, while it's blatantly obvious why there are countless small, predominantly green parrots, sometimes with tiger patterns too - and I understand that large macaws can afford to be bright red or blue because they have little to fear from avian predators as healthy adults. Can anyone explain why there are brightly colored small parrots such as the sun conure? What's the advantage to them of being small and conspicuously orange? Once saw someone joking that maybe they hide from predators by sitting still in a tree and pretending to be mangos. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.90.140.62 (talk) 21:17, 5 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Some parrots may be poisonous. 2600:1702:2670:B530:AC64:C788:5D8F:7971 (talk) 01:03, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't see any parrots in Toxic bird. However, the Norwegian Blue could be a problem. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:43, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * According to Our Lord JC. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:09, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * In an eco-system in which there were an abundance of small, predominantly green, birds the higher predators could be expected to become highly skilled at detecting and catching the green parrots even though these parrots appear to our human eyes to be almost camouflaged. In this eco-system it could be a successful evolutionary strategy to become the antithesis of a small green parrot, especially if there are so many small green parrots that they become the staple diet of the higher predators and those predators don’t need to diversify their diet to survive. In such an eco-system, the brighter and more garish parrots might occupy a specially successful niche. Dolphin ( t ) 02:06, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

The trite answer is that such birds gain more advantage from having bright plumage than any disadvantages that might also ensue. It is perhaps worth noting that parrots often live in large social groups in tropical forests, in which situation it might be advantageous to be brightly coloured - as well as to be noisy, which parrots are - to better enable birds to keep in contact with other group members. PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 07:29, 6 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Having recently watched David Attenborough's Life in Colour series on BBC, I am keen to ask what degree of colour vision do the predators of those small orange parrots like sun conures have? Martinevans123 (talk) 09:17, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, and it would first be necessary to establish what the predators are - maybe owls or nocturnal snakes are as important (or more important?) than diurnal avian predators like hawks etc.? And even in daylight, in dense tropical forests maybe having bright plumage isn't so much of a risk factor for predation from swift predators such as hawks etc., given that they won't be able to see prey from long distances anyway? PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 09:49, 6 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Note that there are plenty of small, brightly-coloured birds in my back garden in England - goldfinch or blue tit for example. Presumably, the evolutionary advantage of attracting the best mate outweighs any conspicuousness to predators.
 * See also Plumage evolution: Explaining the vivid colors of birds. Alansplodge (talk) 10:30, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I would say that the bright plumage of tropical birds such as parrots is generally considerably more luminous and colourful than that of blue tits and goldfinches - however colourful the latter may seem in comparison to the many "small brown jobs" so prevalent in in the UK. PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 10:42, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Is this bright coloration present in both males and females of these parrots? If not, sexual selection may be more important than natural selection in maintaining this coloration. --Khajidha (talk) 10:48, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Sexual selection is commonly associated with sexual dimorphism, but they two are not mutually required. Many species exhibit one trait without the other.  In other words, even if parrots don't show color difference between the sexes that does NOT eliminate sexual selection as a rationale. -- Jayron 32 12:34, 6 April 2021 (UTC)


 * In most parrots, and certainly in the sun conure males and females are identical (a lot of parrot owners still only discover the sex of their bird if it lays an egg). At least to human eyes. Birds have tetrachromatic vision and in *some* species there are differences that are only visible in the UV spectrum. --Iloveparrots (talk) 13:00, 6 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I see Tetrachromacy mentions zebras and pigeons. But not sun conures. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:08, 6 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I have no idea about the sun conure specifically, but some parrots are tetrachromats. --Iloveparrots (talk) 20:35, 6 April 2021 (UTC)


 * To ensure offspring is fertile. Birds can successfully breed with other species but their offspring may be infertile. The plumage on the male is a strategy for a female to only breed with her own species and produce fertile offspring. Sleigh (talk) 18:11, 6 April 2021 (UTC)
 * . -- Jayron 32 18:19, 6 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that doesn't always work very well. :) --Iloveparrots (talk) 20:35, 6 April 2021 (UTC)