Differences in color vision make passerines less conspicuous in the eyes of their predators.

Abstract

Sexual selection often favors brighter and exaggerated traits, which also increase the risk of detection by predators. Signals that are preferentially conspicuous to conspecifics would reduce the predation cost of signaling and, therefore, might facilitate the evolution of stronger sexual and social signals. This selective signaling is possible if predators and prey have differently tuned sensory systems. By using a retinal model to compare reflectance from the plumages of Swedish songbirds to the reflectance of their natural backgrounds, we found their color badges to be significantly more conspicuous to other songbirds (which have a UV-tuned visual system) than to raptors and corvids (which have a violet-tuned system) in both coniferous and deciduous forests, consistent with an adaptive private communication system.