Rufous Common Cuckoo chicks are not always female
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F19%3A43900041" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/19:43900041 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/34874/Kolecek%20et%20al%202018%20cuckoo%20chick%20colour.pdf;jsessionid=7E9BAD22D2E07DE6F09048B0546362AC?sequence=1" target="_blank" >https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/34874/Kolecek%20et%20al%202018%20cuckoo%20chick%20colour.pdf;jsessionid=7E9BAD22D2E07DE6F09048B0546362AC?sequence=1</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10336-018-1591-7" target="_blank" >10.1007/s10336-018-1591-7</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Rufous Common Cuckoo chicks are not always female
Original language description
The Common Cuckoo (hereafter Cuckoo) shows two adult plumage morphs-adult male plumage is grey and adult females are either grey or, less frequently, rufous. The situation is less clear in juveniles, as both sexes exhibit variable proportions of grey and rufous colour. We thus describe the patterns related to sex-specific plumage colour variation in a central European Cuckoo population. We genetically determined the sex of 91 Cuckoo chicks and using visual classification of photographs we scored juvenile plumage colouration of individual chicks into five classes based upon the increasing proportion of rufous colour on feathers. To verify these scores, we sampled chick feathers and quantified the proportion of rufous colour of individual feathers by digital image analysis. We found that juvenile females had a higher proportion of rufous colour of feathers than juvenile males. However, the difference was marginally non-significant based on visual inspection alone, and some male chicks even showed intensively rufous plumage like those of juvenile females. In contrast, we captured only grey adult males (n = 37), while five out of 20 adult females were rufous. The rufous colour of Cuckoo feathers considerably differed from the grey colour and the difference seemed to be larger in adults than in juveniles. We show that chicks, unlike adult females, cannot be visually assigned to either of the adult morphs. Therefore, we encourage further investigation of Cuckoo plumage colouration across the species' range to examine the process of plumage maturation. A detailed genetic analysis is necessary to understand the origin of Cuckoo feather colouration.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10615 - Ornithology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2019
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Journal of Ornithology
ISSN
2193-7192
e-ISSN
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Volume of the periodical
160
Issue of the periodical within the volume
1
Country of publishing house
DE - GERMANY
Number of pages
9
Pages from-to
155-163
UT code for WoS article
000458029700015
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85054879586