Meeting Abstract
The presence and extent of sexual dimorphism is an important question in all aspects of the zoology of a species. Birds provide some of the most striking examples of this phenomenon, like the male Eastern bluebird’s vibrant blue plumage compared to the female’s dull periwinkle. However, investigations of sexual dimorphism are traditionally limited to physiological differences such as body size, color, and secondary sexual traits, with little focus on whether sex differences could affect behavioral traits such as flight performance. We used high speed video footage of flight from 10 breeding pairs of Eastern bluebirds in rural Ohio to ask whether males and females exhibit sexual differences in their flight behaviors during the breeding season. We hypothesized that females have impaired flight performance during the breeding season compared to males due to the higher energetic costs of reproduction on females. Our findings suggest that males and females exhibit sexual differences in their flight behaviors during reproduction. These results imply that sexual dimorphism in birds extends to complex behavioral traits, and further work should address how these differences manifest during the non-breeding season.
