The ability of feathers to perform many functions either simultaneously or at different times
throughout the year or life of a bird is integral to the evolutionary history of birds. Many …

Animal camouflage has long been used to illustrate the power of natural selection, and
provides an excellent testbed for investigating the trade‐offs affecting the adaptive value of …

The first comprehensive review of all aspects of the biology of moult, drawing information
from across the literature and in all birds, from penguins to passerines. Feathers are …

The nighttime environment is being altered rapidly over large areas worldwide through
introduction of artificial lighting, from streetlights and other sources. This is predicted to …

Fire regimes are a major agent of evolution in terrestrial animals. Changing fire regimes and
the capacity for rapid evolution in wild animal populations suggests the potential for rapid …

Camouflage is a key defence across taxa and frequently critical to survival. A common
strategy is background matching, resembling the colour and pattern of the environment. This …

Birds exhibit remarkable variation in plumage patterns, both within individual feathers and
among plumage patches. Differences in the size, shape, and location of pigments and …

Organismal appearances are shaped by selection from both biotic and abiotic drivers. For
example, Gloger's rule describes the pervasive pattern that more pigmented populations are …

The ability to change appearance over a range of timescales is widespread in nature,
existing in many invertebrate and vertebrate groups. This can include color change …

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