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First published online March 2, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 1004-1015 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02089

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Carotenoid availability in diet and phenotype of blue and great tit nestlings

Clotilde Biard^1,*, Peter F. Surai² and Anders P. Møller¹

¹ Laboratoire de Parasitologie Evolutive, CNRS UMR 7103, Université Pierre et Marie Curie–Paris 6, Bât. A–Case 237, 7 quai Saint Bernard, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
² Lipid and Antioxidant Group, Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Avian Science Research Centre, Scottish Agricultural College, Auchincruive, Ayr, KA6 5HW, UK

^* Author for correspondence at present address: Equipe Ecologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5561 Biogéosciences, Université de Bourgogne, 6 bd Gabriel, F-21000 Dijon, France (e-mail: Clotilde.Biard{at}u-bourgogne.fr)

Accepted 11 January 2006

Carotenoids are biologically active pigments of crucial importance for the development of avian embryos and nestlings. Thus parental ability to provide nestlings with a carotenoid-rich diet may enhance offspring fitness. However, very little is known about the possible effects of carotenoid availability in the diet on growing nestlings in natural populations. We experimentally manipulated dietary intake of carotenoids by nestlings of two closely related passerine species, the great tit Parus major and the blue tit Parus caeruleus, and measured nestling antioxidants, body condition, immunity and plumage colour. There was no detectable increase in plasma carotenoids after treatment in carotenoid-fed nestlings of either species despite regular supply of dietary carotenoids. However, in carotenoid-fed blue tit nestlings, plasma vitamin E concentration increased with plasma carotenoid concentration, while that was not the case for control nestlings. In both species, there was no significant effect of carotenoid supply on immune function. Carotenoid supplementation enhanced yellow feather colour in great tit nestlings only. In both species a strong effect of carotenoid supply was found on body condition with an increase in body mass for small carotenoid-fed nestlings compared to similarly sized control nestlings. Dietary availability of carotenoids may thus have important fitness consequences for tits. We hypothesise that the difference in effect of dietary carotenoids on the two species is due to relatively larger clutch size and higher growth rates of blue tits compared to great tits, leading to blue tit nestlings being more in need of carotenoids for antioxidant function than great tit nestlings.

Key words: antioxidants, early development, feather colour, fledgling body mass, immune function

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