Barn Owl (5 Viewers)

[MJB]

I'm not certain about how they compare as far as diurnal activity, but Barn Owls seem to have good enough night vision that darkness is not an obstacle. Some of the comments in the SACC responses seem ignorant of studies which do indeed suggest that plumage difference can be important - here is one that suggests that males select females based on spotting density:

Roulin, A. (1999). Nonrandom pairing by male Barn Owls (Tyto alba) with respect to a female plumage trait. Behavioral Ecology 10:688-695.

Alexandre Roulin is still authoring owl papers today!
MJB

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Alexandre Roulin is still authoring owl papers today!
MJB

He sure does (see here, and click on Publications).

 

[Kirk Roth]

He sure does (see here, and click on Publications).

Bjorn, thank you for posting this... because the other day I was actually seeking and unable to find another article, which turns out to be Alexandre's!

A melanin-based trait is more strongly related to body size in the tropics than in temperate regions in the globally distributed barn owl family.
Roulin A., Uva V., Romano A., 2018. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 31 (12) pp. 1932-1944.

This study compared ventral spot size as a function of latitude, but my main point stems from something I'll just quote from the abstract:

"We examined predictions of this hypothesis in the Tytonidae family (barn owls and their relatives) because females, on average, display larger black spots on the tip of their ventral body feathers than males, and this trait is associated with aspects of individual quality."

Some of the SACC members were trying to make a point that plumage differences in nocturnal birds shouldn't matter. But just because we can't see in the dark doesn't mean the Barn Owls can't! I wanted this study to show that, rangewide, Barn Owls have sex-associated plumage differences and therefore, those are related to sexual selection (the basis of BSC) as per basic evolutionary concepts. In other words, if visual differences don't matter, why would males and females look different?

By extension, the different populations of Barn Owl could be said to vary much more greatly with each other in plumage than, for example, all the species of screech owls, pygmy owls, or a majority of nightjar species. One would think there could be a reason, and at the very least that it would show that there are important differences among the night birds and that easy comparisons may not be valid. The Committee seemed to realize this with regard to vocalizations, but I think it must be true with the plumage too.

Thanks again for sharing this. That volume of publications is a very impressive contribution of work from Dr. Roulin.

 

[DSzilard]

But remove that ghastly hyphen, please!

Dear colleagues,

I am interested in American Barn Owl's (Tyto furcata) epithet meaning besides that in Latin is forked (furca = fork). I didn't find any source explaining the meaning of forked in this name's case. It could be a morphological character? Because it does not have a forked tail (as usual in case of many species with this name) and other body part, and don't know any other characters that could be the basis of this epithet. Many thanks in advance for your help!

 

[l_raty]

Dear colleagues,

I am interested in American Barn Owl's (Tyto furcata) epithet meaning besides that in Latin is forked (furca = fork). I didn't find any source explaining the meaning of forked in this name's case. It could be a morphological character? Because it does not have a forked tail (as usual in case of many species with this name) and other body part, and don't know any other characters that could be the basis of this epithet. Many thanks in advance for your help!

Temminck described it as having a forked tail...

v.2 (1838) - Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

 

[DSzilard]

Temminck described it as having a forked tail...

v.2 (1838) - Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community.

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Many thanks!!!

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Cumer, Tristan, Machado, Ana Paula, San-Jose, Luis M., Ducrest, Anne-Lyse, Simon, Céline, Roulin, Alexandre, and Goudet, Jérôme (2024) The genomic architecture of continuous plumage colour variation in the European barn owl (Tyto alba). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2912023199520231995
http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1995

Abstract
The maintenance of colour variation in wild populations has long fascinated evolutionary biologists, although most studies have focused on discrete traits exhibiting rather simple inheritance patterns and genetic architectures. However, the study of continuous colour traits and their potentially oligo- or polygenic genetic bases remains rare in wild populations. We studied the genetics of the continuously varying white-to-rufous plumage coloration of the European barn owl (Tyto alba) using a genome-wide association approach on the whole-genome data of 75 individuals. We confirmed a mutation at the melanocortin-1-receptor gene (MC1R) is involved in the coloration and identified two new regions, located in super-scaffolds 9 and 42. The combination of the three regions explains most of the colour variation (80.37%, 95% credible interval 58.45–100%). One discovered region, located in the sex chromosome, differs between the most extreme colorations in owls sharing a specific MC1R genotype. This region may play a role in the colour sex dimorphism of this species, possibly in interaction with the autosomal MC1R. We thus provide insights into the genetic architecture of continuous colour variation, pointing to an oligogenic basis with potential epistatic effects among loci that should aid future studies understanding how continuous colour variation is maintained in nature.

 

[Mysticete]

Treat Tyto furcata as a separate species from Barn Owl Tyto alba

Another proposals to split, this time American vs Old World