![]() ![]() Zebra finches that were given carotenoids had a larger increase in rank of bill color, meaning they developed more significantly redder beaks than the finches in the control group. Females preferred sitting perched next to males with carotenoid supplements in their diets compared to their brothers, meaning, males with redder beaks are considered more attractive to females. They also predicted that females would be more likely to sit perched next to males with brighter beaks and that males that were receiving the carotenoid water throughout the experiment would have stronger immune systems to fight of the toxin than the group receiving regular distilled water. Researcher’s predicted that males with a more carotenoid enriched diet would have more red colored beaks, compared to the control group who would have more orange colored beaks. They also studied each male zebra finch’s immune system and its ability to fight off a toxin that was injected into their wing web. They studied a female’s preference by how long she sat perched next to a specific male. They observed beak coloration and ranked it on a scale from 1 (light orange) to 9 (dark red). They gave one group of them distilled drinking water and the other group received drinking water enriched with carotenoids. Researchers in this study used adult zebra finch brothers. The researchers in this study aimed to learn if the immune system of a zebra finch is limited based on the availability of carotenoids and whether or not females prefer males who have a more carotenoid rich diet. In it, we will learn if a carotenoid-based diet affects a zebra finch’s ability to maintain health and if their diet has an overall affect on being picked by females as a suitable mate. This study aims to reinforce what we have already seen present in house finches. Similar to house finches, zebra finches have been found to have bills that range greatly in color intensity. Ultimately, we learned that females do, in fact, prefer to mate with males who have brighter colored feathers and that the reasoning is due to the healthier diet in males. We talked about how a diet more rich in carotenoids (a pigment found in healthier foods), may affect if a male bird has brighter colored feathers or duller colored feathers. Because it is energetically more expensive to rewarm eggs than to maintain temperature once the eggs are warm, the cost of incubation depends in part on the attentiveness pattern.In class, we discussed how female house finches pick their mate based on the brightness of their red feathers. The pattern of adult attentiveness at the nest determines the number of times and amount by which the eggs must be rewarmed. Incubating birds responded to artificially cooled eggs by elevating their metabolic rate and increasing heat flow to the clutch. ![]() The energetic cost of incubation increased when birds had to rewarm cold eggs. In the Zebra Finch, the ameliorating effects of the nest microclimate approximately compensate for the increment in metabolic rate due to incubation. The V̇ O 2 of non-incubating birds sitting in a nest was lower than values reported for birds perched in the open at the same temperature. This increase represents the energetic cost of incubation. At temperatures below 28☌, rate of oxygen consumption (V̇ O 2) of Zebra Finches (Poephila guttata) incubating eggs averaged 20% higher than the V̇ O 2 of non-incubating Zebra Finches sitting in a nest at the same temperature. ![]()
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