Nature versus nurture: Better looking birds have healthier babies, finds study of great tits
Sunday, March 24, 2013 - 19:31
in Biology & Nature
A female great tits' (Parus major) appearance is shown to signal healthy attributes in offspring in a new paper. The black stripe across her breast and white patches on her cheeks correlate to a chick’s weight at two weeks and immune strength respectively -- though the former seems to signal a genetic benefit and the latter can affect an ‘adopted’ chick’s health, suggesting nurture is involved.