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- Rosivall, Balázs, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of extrapair paternity and sex on nestling growth and condition in the collared flycatcher, Ficedula albicollis
- 2009
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Ingår i: Animal Behaviour. - : Elsevier BV. - 1095-8282 .- 0003-3472. ; 77:3, s. 611-617
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Extrapair fertilizations (EPFs) have been found in most socially monogamous passerine species. EPFs are generally beneficial for males because they increase the number of sired offspring. The benefit accrued by females, however, is less obvious. Maternal benefits may involve fertility insurance, increased genetic variability of the offspring, and improved offspring quality via compatible genes or 'good genes'. In a Hungarian population of the collared flycatcher, we investigated whether the occurrence of extrapair young (EPY) in a brood could be predicted by the traits of the females or their social mates, and whether EPY were superior to their half sibs in terms of growth and. edging condition. We found that 55.7% of the broods contained EPY. The females' participation in extrapair copulations (EPCs) was not related to any of the characteristics of their mates (body size, condition, wing and forehead patch size). The EPY did not differ from their half sibs in any measures of offspring quality. The half sibs had similar embryonic and postembryonic growth and. edged with similar body condition. Female body size was related to extrapair paternity: larger females were less likely to produce mixed-paternity broods. This suggests that the role of female traits in EPCs deserves more attention. We also found that male nestlings grew faster than females, although females could catch up by the time of. edging, so we argue that sex-dependent development should be taken into account in studies using nestling growth as a measure of nestling quality. (C) 2008 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Szoellosi, Eszter, et al.
(författare)
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The effect of parental quality and malaria infection on nestling performance in the Collared Flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis)
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of Ornithology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2193-7206 .- 2193-7192. ; 150:3, s. 519-527
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plumage ornamentation often signals the quality of males and, therefore, female birds may choose elaborately ornamented mates to increase their fitness. Such mate choice may confer both direct and indirect benefits to the offspring. Males with elaborate ornaments may provide good genes, which can result in better nestling growth, survival or resistance against parasitic infections. However, these males may also provision their offspring with more food or food of better quality, resulting in nestlings growing at a higher rate or fledging in better condition. In this study, we examined if there was an association between male ornamentation and malaria infection in Collared Flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis). We also investigated offspring performance in relation to malaria infection in the parents and the quality of the genetic and rearing fathers (assessed by the size of two secondary sexual characters) under simulated good and bad conditions (using brood size manipulation). We found that secondary sexual characters did not signal the ability of males to avoid parasitic infections, and malaria infection in the genetic and the rearing parents had no effect on nestling growth and fledging size. Our results do show, however, that it may be beneficial for the females to mate with males with a large forehead patch because wing feathers of nestlings reared by large-patched males grew at a higher rate. Fast feather growth can result in earlier fledging which, in turn, could improve nestling survival in highly variable environments or under strong nest predation.
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