Carotenoid Plasma Concentration, Immune Profile, and Plumage Ornamentation of Male Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica)

@article{Saino1999CarotenoidPC,
  title={Carotenoid Plasma Concentration, Immune Profile, and Plumage Ornamentation of Male Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica)},
  author={Nicola Saino and Riccardo Stradi and Paola Ninni and Elena Pini and Anders Pape M{\o}ller},
  journal={The American Naturalist},
  year={1999},
  volume={154},
  pages={441 - 448}
}
Carotenoids exert immunomodulating, immunostimulating, and antioxidant actions in mammals and are major determinants of coloration in animals. Honest advertisement models of sexual selection propose that male ornaments, including coloration, are reliable indicators of male quality. Because of their simultaneous effects on male coloration and immunity, carotenoids might mediate the hypothesized relationship between the expression of epigamic coloration and parasitism in vertebrates. We analyzed… 
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DIET, PLASMA CAROTENOIDS, AND SEXUAL COLORATION IN THE ZEBRA FINCH (TAENIOPYGIA GUTTATA)

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Fat soluble antioxidants in brood-rearing great tits Parus major: relations to health and appearance

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Carotenoid-based plumage coloration reflects hemoparasite infection and local survival in breeding great tits

Investigating the ventral, yellow coloration of breeding adult great tits in relation to sex, age, breeding habitat, local survival and infection status with respect to Haemoproteus blood parasites suggests that carotenoid-based plumage coloration serves as a signal reflecting individual quality in terms of health status and local survival.

Carotenoid and melanin-based ornaments signal similar aspects of male quality in two populations of the common yellowthroat

Examining the signalling function of male plumage ornaments in a warbler, the common yellowthroat, breeding in New York (NY) and Wisconsin (WI), USA, found that brightness of the yellow bib was the best signal of humoral immunity in NY and mask size was thebest signal in WI, after controlling for breeding experience and capture date.

Egg carotenoids in passerine birds introduced to New Zealand: relations to ecological factors, integument coloration and phylogeny

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