Female incubation attendance and nest vigilance reflect social signaling capacity: a field experiment

Plaza, Mireia; Cantarero, Alejandro; Cuervo, José Javier; Moreno, Juan C.

doi:10.1007/s00265-017-2423-0

Cited by 14 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…Our survey of the literature for birds found 16 species for which experimental studies had been performed (Table 3). For instance, in the female pied flycatcher, decreasing the size of the white wing patch reduced female incubation attendance, a result thought to be the results of their decreased status (Plaza, Cantarero, Cuervo, & Moreno, 2018), or in the lovely fairywren (Malurus amabilis), less colored females (and males) reacted more aggressively when shown images of themselves than when shown images of more colored birds (Leitão, Hall, Delhey, & Mulder, 2019). In prothonotary warblers, nest boxes were placed in high and low quality territories and it appeared that older females with purer yellow breast coloration occupied nest boxes in higher quality territories (Beck, 2013).…”

Section: (Iii) Female-female Competition and Female Colorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of female coloration: What have we learned from birds in general and blue tits in particular

Doutrelant

Fargevieille

Grégoire

2020

Advances in the Study of Behavior

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Section: (Iii) Female-female Competition and Female Colorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of female coloration: What have we learned from birds in general and blue tits in particular

Doutrelant

Fargevieille

Grégoire

2020

Advances in the Study of Behavior

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“…UV reflectance of white patches has been analyzed in other studies of the species (Lehtonen et al , Sirkiä and Laaksonen ). In this study we focus on the area of these plumage patches as in other studies of the species (Galván and Moreno , Lehtonen et al , Lobato et al , Moreno et al , , , Cantarero et al , , Laaksonen et al , Sirkiä et al , Plaza et al ). Moreover, we have previously shown that area and UV reflectance of wing patches are positively correlated, at least in females (Cantarero et al ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both sexes present white patches on the wings and on the forehead, although female forehead patches are almost nonexistent in northern populations (Morales et al , , Cantarero et al ). There is a large literature showing that these patches constitute sexual and social signals of differing importance according to the population being studied (Dale et al , Morales et al , Galván and Moreno , Lehtonen et al , Sirkiä and Laaksonen , Lobato et al , Moreno et al , , , Moreno et al Järvistö et al , Cantarero et al , , Sirkiä et al , Plaza et al , Teerikorpi et al ). Forehead patches are moulted together with body plumage in Africa, while wing patches are constituted by white patches on tertials, also moulted in Africa, and white bands on flight feathers, moulted in the breeding range during or soon after breeding (Lundberg and Alatalo ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenotypic plasticity in breeding plumage signals in both sexes of a migratory bird: responses to breeding conditions

Moreno

Cantarero

Plaza

et al. 2019

Journal of Avian Biology

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Adaptive phenotypic plasticity may respond to present ambient conditions. Sexual and social signals in both sexes may express phenotype performance. Plumage signals that change discontinuously allow relating discrete variation to previous performance. Both sexes of the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca present white patches on the wings and on the forehead, which constitute sexual and social signals. Forehead patches are moulted together with body plumage in Africa, while wing patches are partly moulted in Africa and partly in the breeding area soon after breeding. We studied individual inter‐year changes (corrected for regression to the mean) in the size of forehead and wing patches of both sexes in seven years for females or six years for males in two nearby study areas in central Spain. We found that initial signal extent strongly delimits the possible subsequent changes negatively. There is a negative association of male age with forehead patch changes. Cold and rainy springs are associated in females with decreases in both patch areas and vice versa, while no association with climate is observed in male wing patch changes. Cold pre‐breeding conditions predict positive changes in female wing and male forehead patches. Breeding success is positively associated with forehead patch changes in females. Late‐breeding males experience more positive changes in forehead patch size than early‐breeding males. Some of these trends can be explained by variable costs of breeding in certain conditions for subsequent signal production and/or maintenance, while absence of trends in some cases may be explained by sex differences in costs of breeding and interactions with phenotypic quality of breeders.

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“…Firstly, on the social male's capacity to guard their mates and fight off male intruders, which is a function of his aggressiveness and dominance (Moreno et al 2010b). And secondly, on the female's ability to evade mate guarding tactics (Alatalo et al 1987), which may depend on her size, age (Bouwman and Komdeur 2005;Ramos et al 2014), social dominance expressed through ornaments (Plaza et al 2018) or flight ability (Stutchbury and Robertson 1987). In this respect, a high female body condition would favour the capacity of females to evade the attention of their mates and fly in search of extra-pair mates, roaming more easily through the breeding area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An experimental increase in female mass during the fertile phase leads to higher levels of extra-pair paternity in pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca

Plaza

Cantarero

Moreno

2019

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Female mass in most altricial birds reaches its maximum during breeding at egg laying, which coincides temporally with the fertile phase when extra-pair paternity (EPP) is determined. Higher mass at laying may have two different effects on EPP intensity. On the one hand, it would lead to increased wing loading (body mass/wing area), which may impair flight efficiency and thereby reduce female's capacity to resist unwanted extra-pair male approaches (sexual conflict hypothesis). On the other hand, it would enhance female condition, favouring her capacity to evade mate guarding and to search for extra-pair mates (female choice hypothesis). In both cases, higher female mass at laying may lead to enhanced EPP. To test this prediction, we reduced nest building effort by adding a completely constructed nest in an experimental group of female pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca). Our treatment caused an increase in mass and thereby wing loading and this was translated into a significantly higher EPP in the manipulated group compared with the control group as expected. There was also a significant negative relationship between EPP and laying date and the extent of the white wing patch, an index of female dominance. More body reserves at laying mean not only a higher potential fecundity but a higher level of EPP as well. This interaction had not previously received due attention but should be considered in future studies of avian breeding strategies. Significance statementWhile most research has been focused on determining possible criteria for extra-pair mate choice by females, less effort has been made on establishing if female traits are related to EPP and its intensity. One such trait is mass at laying which attains its highest level for breeding females of altricial birds. Our study indicates that a higher mass during the fertile phase not only has implications for female fecundity and predation risk but also for EPP in the resulting brood as more mass means a higher EPP.

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Female incubation attendance and nest vigilance reflect social signaling capacity: a field experiment

Cited by 14 publications

References 92 publications

Evolution of female coloration: What have we learned from birds in general and blue tits in particular

Evolution of female coloration: What have we learned from birds in general and blue tits in particular

Phenotypic plasticity in breeding plumage signals in both sexes of a migratory bird: responses to breeding conditions

An experimental increase in female mass during the fertile phase leads to higher levels of extra-pair paternity in pied flycatchers Ficedula hypoleuca

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