School Of Environmental & Natural Resources
http://senr.osu.edu/secondary2.asp?pageid=Bright_Red_of_Cardinals
Bright Red of Cardinals Means Less in Urban Areas
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Amanda Rodewald, along with Dan Shustack, former ENR doctoral student, and Todd Jones, undergraduate student researcher, conducted research between 2006 and 2008. During that time 129 male and 145 female cardinals that were captured in 13 forests in central Ohio. Each forest was rated as to the amount of urbanization surrounding it, and the researchers compared feather samples from cardinals at each site. They found that the bright red feather coloration of male northern cardinals was less related to body condition for birds living in urban forests than it is for those in rural forests. Indicating that even cardinals in relatively poor condition may appear bright red in urban areas. |
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Photos of collected feathers were analyzed by a software program that measured the hue, saturation and brightness of each feather. Also measured was body mass and size of the cardinals to indicate their body condition or health.
More information on this research is available on the OSU Research web site. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Ohio Division of Wildlife, the OSU Schwab Associate Scholarship Grant, and an undergraduate research grant from the College of Biological Sciences.
Amanda is continuing this research, studying plumage coloration in relation to the quality of territories birds secure.
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