Plumage Colour in Pursuit-Diving Seabirds: Why Do Penguins Wear Tuxedos?

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Abstract
Relations among plumage type, feeding habitat, and air and water temperatures during the breeding season were examined for 61 species of pursuit-diving seabirds of the families Spheniscidae (penguins), Pelecanoididae (diving petrels), Alcidae (alcids) and Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants). Plumage patterns were not systematically related to air or water temperature, nor were they apparently related to the transfer of information on the location of prey. Species with black plumage tend to be bottom-feeders while those with black dorsal and white ventral plumage tend to feed in mid-water. These associations suggest that plumage patterns of seabirds are adapted primarily to reduce the wearer''s conspicuousness to prey. The dark backs possessed by all pursuit-diving seasbirds may retard feather wear caused by solar radiation.