Dietary amino acids influence plumage traits and immune responses of male house sparrows, Passer domesticus, but not as expected
Traits that influence social interactions (signals) are widely thought to be honest indicators of some underlying quality of their bearer. One hypothesis is that a signal and the bearer's immunocompetence are linked via a condition-dependent pathway. We tested this idea by measuring the effect of specific dietary components on the development of a melanin-based plumage signal and the production of
