Morphological characterization and the significance of sexual differences in size among Lipochromic Mosaic Canary bird raised in the Wilaya of Tlemcen Northwest of Algeria

Abstract

The lipochromic mosaic canary is a cage bird breed present with different coat colors, red, and yellow, this breed presents a significant sexual dichromatism. Dichromatism in lipochromic mosaic canaries is explained by differential carotenoid degradation in the integument, rather than sex-specific variation in physiological functions such as pigment uptake or transport. Males have an intense color compared to females and especially at the shoulders and head. We studied sexual size dimorphism (SSD) because this study aimed to investigate whether gender has an impact on thirteen body measurements which are (Head Length, Head Width, Distance Between the Eyes, Beak Length, Beak Width, Chest Circumference, Body Length, Body Width, Wing Length, Sternum Length, Upper Tarsus Length, Lower Tarsus Length, and Tail Length) in 40 native lipochromic mosaic canaries (19 males and 21 females) raised in the Wilaya of Tlemcen Northwest of Algeria. The results showed that there were differences between genders for three characters that are CC (Chest Circumference), BL (Body Length), and WL (Wing Length).  Males had more developed measurable traits than females.