Authors: Ioana Chiver Bridget J M Stutchbury Eugene S Morton
Publish Date: 2008/08/05
Volume: 62, Issue: 12, Pages: 1981-
Abstract
Extrapair fertilizations are common in many socially monogamous species and paternity studies have indicated that females may use male vocal performance and plumage ornaments as cues to assess male quality Female offterritory forays may represent a key component of female choice and male extrapair mating success and female foray behaviour is expected to be strongly influenced by indictors of male quality In this study we examined how male song and ornamentation affect how often females left their territories which males they visited and extrapair paternity in a socially monogamous passerine the hooded warbler Wilsonia citrina We radiotracked 17 females during the fertile period and quantified male vocal performance song output and rate and plumage characteristics size of the black melanin hood and colour of the black hood yellow cheeks and breast areas We obtained blood samples and determined paternity at 35 nests including those of 14 females that we radiotracked Eleven 65 of the 17 females forayed offterritory whilst fertile and female foray rate was positively correlated with the number of extrapair young in the nest Females that left their territories more frequently were paired with males that sang at a low rate In addition extrapair mates had higher song rates than the social mates they cuckolded 53 songs/min vs 44 songs/min Female offterritory forays or extrapair paternity were not significantly related to male plumage characteristics Our results indicate that a high song rate influences both the foray behaviour of a male’s social mate and the likelihood that he will sire extrapair offspring with neighbouring femalesWe would like to thank Stefanie LaZerte and Elizabeth Gow for their enthusiastic help in the field as well as Bonnie Woolfenden for much help with the genetic analysis This research was supported by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada NSERC scholarship and York University Faculty of Graduate Studies grants to IC as well as NSERC grants to BJMS
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