Bird species with color polymorphism have greater ecological success

Abstract

The explanation of the variation in ecological success of species is one of the key challenges in ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. Here, we discuss the function of polymorphism in body color which is one of the most conspicuous features of organisms strongly affecting the performance of species. We applied a phylogenetic comparative approach to assess whether body color polymorphisms contribute to species success in birds, reflected in distributional ranges, extinction risk, and current population trends. We compiled and analyzed a comprehensive global dataset that included the distribution, phylogeny, ecology and morphological traits of all extant bird species. Species with body color polymorphism showed larger distributional ranges, larger environmental ranges, lower risk of extinction, and more stable population trends. Our analyses suggest that the presence of color polymorphism contributes to avian species success at the global scale, especially reflected in lower extinction likelihood and better population trends.