RESUMO
Studies of several bird species have shown that coloured leg bands may affect a male's success in mate attraction and/or mating competition. From a colour band experiment in the field, we have previously reported that male bluethroats, Luscinia s. svecica, with blue and orange bands (BO males) guarded their mates less intensely at the peak of female fertility, and spent more time advertising for additional mates, than males banded with non-BO colours. These responses indicated that BO males experienced less threat to their paternity than did non-BO males, possibly mediated through an increased attractiveness. Here we present paternity analyses of the broods from the field study and test whether there were differences between the two male groups in within-pair or extrapair paternity. There were no significant differences between the two groups of males in paternity, suggesting effective male protection of paternity. However, extrapair paternity was infrequent in the 2 years of the field experiment; hence, the power in detecting effects on paternity does not allow a definitive conclusion on this issue. We also conducted an aviary experiment in which females were given the choice between a BO male and a non-BO male, to test whether females had preferences for particular colour bands. Females did not associate more with BO males, as would have been expected if these males were more attractive in social mate choice. Our results suggest that the effects of colour bands on social mate choice and paternity are, at best, weak. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
RESUMO
Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
RESUMO
The question of whether, and how, male birds should change their parental effort in response to reduced paternity is a controversial issue among behavioural ecologists. We report a study on pied flycatchers, Ficedula hypoleuca, in which paternity was manipulated through experimentally induced mate switching during the female's fertile period. The paternity of care-giving males ranged from 0 to 100% of the brood. The number of parental males per nest varied between zero and two, and the amount of male assistance in nestling provisioning had a marked effect on female reproductive success. For 17 monogamous males, provisioning effort and the body mass of nestlings on day 12 were reduced at low levels of paternity. However, the shape of the effort function was not unambiguously determined. Male provisioning effort showed a curvilinear decline, whereas nestling body mass showed a linear decline. Two important assumptions of the theory of optimal parental effort seem to be fulfilled in this case: that males had reliable cues to their paternity, and that paternity is likely to be increased in future (normal) breeding attempts. The fact that males reduced their effort at the expense of the welfare of the offspring suggests that there are significant costs of parental care in this species. Whether a similar response to cuckoldry occurs in unmanipulated breeding situations remains to be studied.Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
RESUMO
Artificial traits such as coloured leg bands may affect an individual's mating success, as shown for some birds. One explanation is that colour-matching with a sexual ornament affects the individual's sexual attractiveness. This study reports a colour-band experiment with free-living bluethroats, Luscinia s. svecicaa species where males have a distinct blue and chestnut throat and upper breast. There was no apparent difference in pairing success between males with ornament-matching colour bands (blue and orange) and males with non-ornamental colour bands. However, males with ornamental bands guarded their mates less intensely and spent more time singing, performing song flights and intruding into neighbours' territories than males with non-ornamental bands. We conclude that colour bands affect the trade-off between mate guarding and advertisement behaviour in a way that is consistent with the hypothesis that bands with ornamental colours improve a male's attractiveness. The results are in concordance with a previous study of the same population, showing that males with experimentally reduced attractiveness guarded their mates more closely and advertised less for additional mates, than non-manipulated males.
RESUMO
By making female birds pair successively with different males, and analysing the paternity of the eggs laid, it is possible to examine how a male's success in obtaining fertilizations is determined by the timing of his copulatory access to the female. Such an experiment is reported here with pied flycatchers, Ficedula hypoleucaMate switching was induced at different stages within the female's fertile period by removing the resident male. The paternity of the clutch was analysed by microsatellite DNA typing. Removed males had full paternity in the clutch if they were removed as late as after the second egg was laid (day 1), and they lost all paternity if they were removed more than 1 day before the first egg was fertilized (less than day -2). Male switching during the period day -2 to day 1 always resulted in mixed paternity in the clutch. Males that were paired to the female for only a few (1-3) days during this period achieved on average more than one fertilization per access day, with a peak on day -1. Thus, assuming that the timing of observed pair bonds reflects the timing of each male's copulatory access to the female, the first eggs in the laying sequence were fertilized by inseminations occurring shortly before the time of fertilization, whereas the last eggs were fertilized by inseminations taking place several days prior to their fertilization. Our documentation of the most important period for copulatory access has some important implications for understanding sexual behaviour in this species.
