Zebra finches

As an evolutionary new male trait, which represents the new male phenotype, I use red feathers of a feather boa (right picture). The feather is glued on the forehead of males and stands upright light a crest. This ornamentation has already been successfully used to investigate several aspects of sexual imprinting in zebra finches and the Javanese Mannikin Lonchura leucogastroides (Witte & Curio 1999, Witte u. a. 2000, Hörster u. a. 2000, Witte & Sawka 2003, Witte & Caspers 2006).

For my experiments I use males of two different artificial phenotypes; adorned males (red feather, right picture) and unadorned males (wild-type, left picture). Wild-type males wear a small inconspicous peace of a wing feather.