An avian equivalent of make-up?

We report that a long-distance migrating shorebird, the red knot, makes a complete switch from commonly occurring monoester preen waxes to a much rarer class of higher-molecular-weight diester waxes at the time of take-off to the high arctic breeding grounds. The cold arctic climate would have requi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology Letters
Main Authors: Piersma, T, Dekker, M, Sinninghe Damsté, Jaap S.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 1999
Subjects:
annual cycle
Arctic
Calidris canutus
mate choice
migration
plumage quality
preen wax
sexual selection
shorebirds
uropygial gland
LONG-DISTANCE MIGRANT
KNOT CALIDRIS-CANUTUS
Red Knot
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/5a449edf-d652-406d-82a7-49eb6b2f9d22
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/5a449edf-d652-406d-82a7-49eb6b2f9d22
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.1999.00078.x
Description
Summary:We report that a long-distance migrating shorebird, the red knot, makes a complete switch from commonly occurring monoester preen waxes to a much rarer class of higher-molecular-weight diester waxes at the time of take-off to the high arctic breeding grounds. The cold arctic climate would have required a lowering of wax-viscosity, and thus, a shift in the reverse direction. We propose that a sexually selected need for a brilliant plumage has lead to this center-intuitive temporary shift from monoesters to diester waxes. The difficulty of application of the diester preen waxes under cold conditions would ensure the reliability of the quality-signalling function of this most probably sexually selected trait.

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