Plumage ornaments in male Northern Lapwings Vanellus vanellus may not be a reliable indicator of their mating success

Abstract

Conspicuous morphological traits that signal aspects of physical state of the owner may be used as cues in mate choice, leading to sexual selection of ornamental traits. In birds, colour patterns as well as structural attributes may constitute ornaments affecting mate choice. In the breeding season, Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus males possess long crests, contrast-rich black and white facial markings, a black breast, and a shining greenish dorsal side. In non-breeding and juvenile plumages, and in females, crests are shorter, facial patterns have less clear contrasts, and breast and dorsal side possess varying amounts of light fringes. Depending onmoult energetics in latewinter/early spring, when males acquire their breeding plumage, the state of these characters could potentially signal male condition to females prospecting for mates. We examined if these traits correlatedwithmalemating success in this polygynous species, predictingmales with themost expressed ornamental characters (a) tomate earlier and (b) to gainmoremates.Trait states were ranked for 31 males of which breeding phenology and number of mates were known. No correlationwas found between trait expression and date of first egg laid on the territory and number of mates did not correlate with trait expression. Thus, the study did not confirm that females use crest length, breast blackness and face contrasts or lack of dorsal fringes as cues in their mate choice. This could be because the elaborate traits do not have an ornamental function important for femalemate choice, but experimental studies would be needed to rigorously test this hypothesis.