Understanding how co‐occurring species divide ecological space is a central issue in ecology. Functional traits have the potential to serve as a means for quantitatively assessing niche partitioning by different species based on their ecological attributes, such as morphology, behavior, or trophic habit. This enables testing ecological and evolutionary questions using functional traits at spatio‐temporal scales that are not feasible using traditional field methods. Both rapid evolutionary change and inter‐ and intraspecific competition, however, may limit the utility of morphological functional traits as indicators of how niches are partitioned. To address how behavior and morphology interact, we quantified foraging behavior of mixed‐species flocks of birds in the Solomon Islands to test whether behavior and morphology are correlated in these flocks. We find that foraging behavior is significantly correlated with morphological traits (p = .05), but this correlation breaks down after correcting for phylogenetic relatedness (p = .66). These results suggest that there are consistent correlations between aspects of behavior and morphology at large taxonomic scales (e.g., across genera), but the relationship between behavior and morphology depends largely on among‐clade differences and may be idiosyncratic at shallower scales (e.g., within genera). As a result, general relationships between behaviors and morphology may not be applicable when comparing close relatives.

中文翻译：

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海岛鸟类混合种群形态与行为的关系

了解共生物种如何划分生态空间是生态学的中心问题。功能性状有可能作为一种手段，可以根据其形态，行为或营养习惯等生态属性定量评估不同物种的生态位分配。这样就可以使用时空尺度的功能性状来测试生态学和进化问题，而这是传统田野方法无法实现的。但是，快速的进化变化和种间和种内竞争都可能限制形态功能性状作为生态位分配指标的效用。为了解决行为和形态之间的相互作用，我们量化了所罗门群岛混合物种禽类的觅食行为，以检验这些禽类的行为和形态是否相关。我们发现觅食行为与形态特征显着相关（p  = .05），但是在校正了系统发育相关性之后，这种相关性就破裂了（p  = .66）。这些结果表明，在较大的分类学尺度上（例如跨属）行为与形态方面之间存在一致的相关性，但是行为与形态之间的关系在很大程度上取决于进化枝间的差异，并且在较浅的尺度上可能是特质的（例如在内部属）。结果，当比较近亲时，行为和形态之间的一般关系可能不适用。