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Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France

In the French Mediterranean plain, the northern extreme of its native range, the Iberian gray shrike, Lanius meridionalis, predominantly feeds on arthropods. Its type of loral plumage plays a key role in protecting its eyes while transporting large prey. The aims are to understand the role played by...

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Autor principal: Labouyrie, Frédéric
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9643125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36381387
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9482
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author Labouyrie, Frédéric
author_facet Labouyrie, Frédéric
author_sort Labouyrie, Frédéric
collection PubMed
description In the French Mediterranean plain, the northern extreme of its native range, the Iberian gray shrike, Lanius meridionalis, predominantly feeds on arthropods. Its type of loral plumage plays a key role in protecting its eyes while transporting large prey. The aims are to understand the role played by feathers in protecting the animal from various types of defensive prey. I combine an inspection of large insect prey types found on larders with a review of bird specimens found in museum collections to examine the morphometric characteristics of rictal feathers and culmen. In addition, precision photographs are used to observe the posture of the plumage in natura. I could identify four categories of protective feathers: clustered bristles, semi‐bristles, semi‐plumes distributed in the loral area, and semi‐plumes above the eyes. My results suggest that the Iberian gray shrike has a complex structure of loral feathers, specific to its foraging activity and prey types. The presence of these rictal bristles is probably a protection against the movements of larger prey items, which might damage loral zone of Lanius meridionalis.
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spelling pubmed-96431252022-11-14 Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France Labouyrie, Frédéric Ecol Evol Nature Notes In the French Mediterranean plain, the northern extreme of its native range, the Iberian gray shrike, Lanius meridionalis, predominantly feeds on arthropods. Its type of loral plumage plays a key role in protecting its eyes while transporting large prey. The aims are to understand the role played by feathers in protecting the animal from various types of defensive prey. I combine an inspection of large insect prey types found on larders with a review of bird specimens found in museum collections to examine the morphometric characteristics of rictal feathers and culmen. In addition, precision photographs are used to observe the posture of the plumage in natura. I could identify four categories of protective feathers: clustered bristles, semi‐bristles, semi‐plumes distributed in the loral area, and semi‐plumes above the eyes. My results suggest that the Iberian gray shrike has a complex structure of loral feathers, specific to its foraging activity and prey types. The presence of these rictal bristles is probably a protection against the movements of larger prey items, which might damage loral zone of Lanius meridionalis. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9643125/ /pubmed/36381387 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9482 Text en © 2022 The Author. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Nature Notes
Labouyrie, Frédéric
Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France
title Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France
title_full Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France
title_fullStr Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France
title_full_unstemmed Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France
title_short Feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: The Iberian gray shrike Lanius meridionalis, in southern France
title_sort feather characteristics of loral zone in an insectivorous passerine: the iberian gray shrike lanius meridionalis, in southern france
topic Nature Notes
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9643125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36381387
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9482
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