Effects of experimental tail shortening on the phenotypic condition of barn swallows Hirundo rustica : implications for tail-length evolution

Experimental tail shortening in Barn Swallows ( Hirundo rustica ) affects haematocrit

1. Recent studies in Scotland suggest that the outermost tail feathers of Barn Swallows ( Hirundo rustica Linnaeus) may be around 10–12 mm longer than the aerodynamic optimum, with sexual selection for long tails accounting for this extra length. 2. To test this hypothesis, we shortened the outermost tail feathers in male and female Barn Swallows in southern Spain by cutting 1, 11 or 21 mm from...

Experimental manipulation of tail length in female barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) affects their future reproductive success

José Javier Cuervo, Anders Pape Møller, and Florentino de Lope Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı́ficas, Calle General Segura 1, E-04001 Almerı́a, Spain, Laboratoire d’Ecologie Evolutive Parasitaire, CNRS FRE 2365, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Bât. A, 7ème étage, 7 quai St. Bernard, Case 237, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France, and Departamento de B...

Effects of experimental tail shortening on the phenotypic condition of barn 1

Experimental tail elongation in male Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica reduces provisioning of young, but only in second broods

At the beginning of the breeding season, the outermost tail feathers of 31 male Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica were either shortened by 20 mm, elongated by 20 mm or left unmanipulated. In first broods, the number of feeding bouts (per nestling per hour) by males and females did not differ significantly among experimental groups. However, in second broods, males with elongated tails fed their nes...

Albinism and phenotype of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) from Chernobyl.

The effects of mutation on phenotypic expression are supposed to be mainly deleterious because mutations disrupt the expression of genes that function relatively well under current environmental conditions. Thus, mutations are assumed to give rise to deviant phenotypes that are generally selected against. Radioactive contamination in the Chernobyl region of Ukraine is associated with a signific...