Lifetime fitness and age‐related female ornament signalling: evidence for survival and fecundity selection in the pied flycatcher

Abstract

Ornaments displayed by females have often been denied evolutionary interest due to their frequently reduced expression relative to males, habitually attributed to a genetic correlation between the sexes. We estimated annual and lifetime reproductive success of female pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) and applied capture-mark-recapture models to analyse annual survival rates in relation to the patterns of expression (absence/presence) of an ornament displayed by all males and a fraction of females. Overall, the likelihood of expressing the ornament increased nonlinearly with female age and was due to within-individual variation, not to the selective appearance or disappearance of ornament-related expression of phenotypes in the population. Accordingly, expressing the forehead patch in a given year did not influence survival probability. However, those females expressing the ornament at early ages (1-2 years old) enjoyed survival advantages throughout lifetime. Although ornamented females had higher lifetime fecundity and fledging success, their yearly reproductive performance, in terms of fledging productivity, decreased as they aged so that, late in life, ornamented females reared fewer offspring than nonexpressing females of the same age. In addition, both strategies (expressing vs. not expressing the trait) returned similar fitness payoffs in terms of recruited offspring. Our results support the hypothesis that fecundity and survival selection are involved in the displaying of this 'male' ornament by females.

No effect of partner age and lifespan on female age‐specific reproductive performance in blue tits

“…Potentially, shorter‐lived females are in poorer condition throughout their lives, causing short‐lived females to be more constrained than long‐lived females to lay early (Torres et al ). Similar to many other studies (Bouwhuis et al , Balbontín et al , Potti et al ; but see McCleery et al , Evans et al ) we found no evidence for female selective disappearance with respect to clutch size.…”

Age‐specific reproduction and disposable soma in an urban population of Common Blackbirds Turdus merula

“…, Potti et al . , see Bouwhuis & Vedder for a review) and the peak in our Blackbird population occurs at around the same age as in Song Sparrows Melospiza melodia (Hochachka et al . ) and Meadow Pipits Anthus pratensis (Hötker ).…”

Exploring Heterozygosity-Survival Correlations in a Wild Songbird Population: Contrasting Effects between Juvenile and Adult Stages

“…The study was carried out with individuals born in the breeding season of 2005 and 2006 as part of a long-term study of pied flycatchers in central Spain (e.g., [41], [42]). The study area consists of two plots separated by 1.3 km, including 236 nest-boxes.…”

“…This population has high natal philopatry with a mean of 13% of recruitment of locally born birds, which is the highest recruitment rate found for the species [42], [44], [45].…”