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Related Concept Videos

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Visually Sexing Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius Ludovicianus) Using Plumage Coloration and Pattern
04:10

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Published on: March 8, 2020

Do female ornaments indicate quality in eider ducks?

Aleksi Lehikoinen1, Kim Jaatinen, Markus Ost

  • 1ARONIA Coastal Zone Research Team, Abo Akademi University and Novia University of Applied Sciences, Raseborgsvägen 9, 10600 Ekenäs, Finland.

Biology Letters
|October 23, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Female eider ducks' white wing bars do not indicate individual quality. Ornament size was consistent year-to-year, unrelated to fitness components like clutch size or hatching success, suggesting it's not a reliable indicator of female quality.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Animal behavior
  • Ornithology

Background:

  • The fitness implications of female ornamentation are poorly understood, with conflicting research findings.
  • Female-specific ornaments, like the white wing bars in eiders (Somateria mollissima), offer a unique opportunity to study ornamentation independent of male genetic correlations.
  • Previous suggestions proposed that female eider wing bar size could indicate individual quality.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between the size of female-specific white wing bars in eiders and key fitness components.
  • To determine if wing bar size serves as an indicator of individual quality in female eiders.

Main Methods:

  • Studied size variation in female eider white wing bars.
  • Correlated ornament size with fitness components: clutch size, body condition, female age, hatching date, and hatching success.
  • Assessed the repeatability of ornament size over consecutive years.

Main Results:

  • Female ornament size was not correlated with clutch size, body condition, age, hatching date, or hatching success.
  • Ornament size was primarily explained by its size in the previous year, indicating high repeatability.
  • Good body condition was positively associated with hatching success, independent of ornament size.

Conclusions:

  • The breadth of white wing bars in female eiders does not appear to be a reliable indicator of individual quality in this population.
  • Ornament size in female eiders is a stable, repeatable trait but not linked to current fitness indicators.
  • Hatching success is linked to body condition, highlighting its importance for reproductive output.