Animal colour patterns are adaptive for three reasons: camouflage, communication and
physico-physiological functions. This study proposes a conceptual framework for predicting …

Background Quantifying the conspicuousness of objects against particular backgrounds is
key to understanding the evolution and adaptive value of animal coloration, and in …

Studies of avian eggshell coloration have been a long-standing research focus in behavioral
evolutionary ecology. Museum collections have provided a widely used resource because …

Animals possess a range of defensive markings to reduce the risk of predation, including
warning colours, camouflage, eyespots and mimicry. These different strategies are …

Diversity in the colour and appearance of avian eggshells has been proposed to serve a
variety of visual functions, including crypsis from predation, mimicry and discrimination in …

Color change serves many antipredator functions and may allow animals to better match
environments or disrupt outlines to prevent detection. Rapid color change could potentially …

Avoiding detection through camouflage is often key to survival. However, an animal's
appearance is not the only factor affecting conspicuousness: background complexity also …

In psychological studies of visual perception, symmetry is accepted as a potent cue in visual
search for cryptic objects, yet its importance for non-human animals has been assumed …

Even if an animal matches its surroundings perfectly in colour and texture, any mismatch
between the spatial phase of its pattern and that of the background, or shadow created by its …

Avian eggshell coloration has frequently been examined in a functional context (eg mimicry,
camouflage), but in recent years, an interest has emerged in identifying the mechanisms that …