BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

Reflectance of mouth, rictal flange and body skin at the beginning of the treatment with cyproheptadine Spectral reflectance (300nm to 700nm) of three begging-related traits of magpie nestlings: mouth (gape or palate), rictal flange and body skin at the beginning of the treatment with cyproheptadine (nestlings 2–4 days old). Values are means obtained from three replicates and corrected by a triangular smoothing (i.e. a floating mean with weights within a distance of 10nm). Before_experimemt_reflectance_300_700nm.txt Reflectance of mouth, rictal flange and body skin at the end of the treatment with cyproheptadine Spectral reflectance (300nm to 700nm) of three begging-related traits of magpie nestlings: mouth (gape or palate), rictal flange and body skin at the end of the treatment with cyproheptadine (nestlings 10–12 days old). Values are means obtained from three replicates and corrected by a triangular smoothing (i.e. a floating mean with weights within a distance of 10nm). After_experimemt_reflectance_300_700nm.txt Irradiance inside 10 active magpie nests Irradiance measurements were performed in 10 active magpie nests between March and April of 2009, and between 09:00am and 11:00am in a magpie population in Guadix (Spain). It was done by placing the probe above the nest cup and pointing vertically toward the dome. Values are means per each nest from three replicates. Irradiance_inside_nests_300_700nm_moles_means.txt Nestling weights and colour measurements for the three begging-related traits before and after the treatment with cyproheptadine data_set_Martin-Galvez_and_Soler_2016.xlsx, The colouration of some traits in nestlings of altricial birds may influence parental food allocation as it may reflect physical condition or hunger. There is increasing evidence of the relationship between colouration of begging traits and nestling performance. However, evidence of the influence of hunger level on nestling colouration is scarce, mainly because of difficulty of distinguishing between the effects of physical condition and hunger levels. Here, we used the appetite stimulant cyproheptadine hydrochloride to increase the sensation of hunger of magpie (Pica pica) nestlings for eight days and assessed the effect on the colouration of rictal flanges, mouth and body skin. We found that nestlings administered with cyproheptadine had flanges more conspicuous (chromatic visual contrast), more UV coloured and less yellow coloured than their control nestmates. Conversely, mouths of experimental nestlings were more yellow coloured and less UV coloured than controls. Our pharmacological experiment affected the strength of the relationship between body mass and some colour components of body skin (chromatic and achromatic visual contrasts, UV–chroma and Yellow–chroma) and of rictal flanges (chromatic visual contrasts, UV–chroma and yellow–chroma), but not for mouth colouration. These results taken together suggest that the effect of the cyproheptadine on nestling colourations is probably mediated by an increase in hunger levels of nestlings for rictal flanges and body skin colourations, and by an increase in physical condition in the case of mouth coloration., Peer reviewed