Non-random Mating: A Theoretical and Empirical Overview with Special Reference to Birds

Mating Patterns in Avian Hybrid Zones — A Meta-Analysis and Review

“…Such early experience often determines mating preferences (ten Cate & Vos 1999, Randler 2005. Then assortative mating may persist and imprinting may have a considerable effect on the genetic structure of a population (Findlay 1987).…”

“…Assortative mating does not necessarily need to be based on social recognition but may also arise passively (Wiebe 2000), e.g. if two groups have different breeding chronologies or timing of migration (prevalence hypothesis, Findlay 1987).…”

A Study on the Hybridization between Carrion and Hooded Crow in Northwestern Italy

“…Recent studies have shown that positive assortative mating for a variety of traits occurs (Nuechterlein 1981, Coulter 1986, Findlay 1987, Hedenstr6m 1987. Sometimes it is possible to observe significant deviations from expected distributions which arise not from true mating preference but rather from spatio-temporal variation in the distribution of various phenotypes, the so called "prevalence hypothesis" (Findlay 1987).…”

Species and pseudospecies: the structure of crossbill populations

“…It is also frequently interpreted as an indication of reduced gene flow between populations, and as a possible early (and still reversible) stage in the process of allopatric speciation. Among the higher vertebrates most, if not all, speciation takes place by this mode (Futuyma & Mayer, 1980;Findlay, 1987; also see Payne, 1973;Grant, 1986;Grant & Grant, 1989 for discussion of possible exceptions in birds). It, therefore, comes as a surprise to find a strongly polytypic species, the red crossbill Loxia curvirostra, in which it is frequently claimed that two or more 'subspecies' breed alongside one another in many parts of the range, apparently without hybridizing (e.g.…”