Colour also matters for nocturnal birds: owlet bill coloration advertises quality and influences parental feeding behaviour in little owls

Chromatic signals of offspring quality have been shown to play a role in parent—offspring communication in diurnal birds, but are assumed to be useless in dim light conditions because colour-based discrimination probably requires more light. A major ecological and evolutionary conundrum in this scenario is why the nestlings of some nocturnal owls display colourful beaks. Here, we test the hypothesis that yellow bill coloration of owlets of the nocturnal little owl Athene noctua may function as a chromatic signal revealing to parents aspects of quality of their offspring. In a first step, we examined physical variation in bill coloration and its covariation with owlet quality. Secondly, we studied parental provisioning in relation to an experimental manipulation of bill coloration of owlets. Bills of owlets showed higher within-nest variation in yellow-red chroma than in brightness. Plasma carotenoid concentration and nestling immunological status were not associated with chromatic or achromatic features of the bill. Interestingly, however, heavier owlets displayed more yellow bills than lighter ones. The effect of bill coloration on parental favouritism changed with brood size. Parents holding large broods preferentially fed owlets with enhanced over reduced yellow bill coloration, whereas those with small broods did not significantly bias feeding in relation to owlet bill coloration. Our results, based on integration of objective spectrophotometric assessment of colour and experimental procedures, confirm that parent little owls use bill coloration to reveal information on owlet body mass to adjust their feeding strategies, thus highlighting the importance of considering potential chromatic signals for a full comprehension of parent—offspring communication processes in nocturnal bird species.