Plumage coloration is a sexually selected indicator of male quality
TL;DR
Sickly finches can't afford to look healthy—the first field evidence that signals are honest because they're costly to fake.
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Foundational study establishing that female house finches prefer red males because coloration honestly signals male quality through condition-dependent carotenoid display. The metabolic trade-off between display and health maintenance makes the signal unfakeable.
Key Findings from Hill (1991)
- Artificially brightened males paired 11 days earlier on average than controls
- Redder males showed higher nest attentiveness and overwinter survival
- Positive correlation between father-son plumage coloration suggests genetic component
- Females preferred colorful males independent of age, size, or dominance
- Paper has 570+ citations, spawning an entire research field on condition-dependent signaling