Sexual selection in a socially monogamous bird: male color predicts paternity success in the mountain bluebird, Sialia currucoides

Individual variation and environmental context in avian life-history evolution: An experimental approach using mountain bluebirds (Sialia currucoides).

“…As many as half of the pairs that successfully fledge young from their first brood produce a second brood in the same breeding season (Power and Lombardo 1996), and this generates considerable variation in annual fecundity among females. Finally, although this species is socially monogamous, as with many passerines, extra-pair paternity has been reported to occur (Monk 1999) and may in fact be quite common within populations (Balenger et al 2009a; see also Chapter 5). It is therefore possible to investigate factors associated with female multiple mating within a breeding season.…”

“…In some sexually dichromatic species, including mountain bluebirds, degree of plumage ornamentation predicts male extra-pair fertilization (EPF) success (e.g. M0ller and Birkhead 1994;Albrecht et al 2009;Balenger et al 2009a), suggesting that females may select extrapair mates according to the quality of these ornamental traits. However, traits that predict EPF success may be either positively (e.g.…”

The signaling function of plumage characteristics in female tree swallows and implications for reproductive success and life-history decisions.

“…Instead, males and SY females may be experiencing different selection pressures for these two opposing plumage types (Houtman and Falls 1994). If UV-blue reflectance is an indicator of quality in males and is selected by females, as has been found in other species (Keyser and Hill 2000;Balenger et al 2009), browner females may be able to successfully pair with these potentially higher quality males if conspecific females perceive browner SY females as subordinate and less-threatening neighbors. In Lazuli buntings (Passerina amoena), for example, older males allow SYs with browner plumage to nest in close proximity, within high-quality territories, whereas older males are aggressive to intermediate-coloured SYs that are perceived as greater reproductive threats (Greene et al 2000).…”

Detection of toxigenic Clostridium difficile in pig feces by PCR

“…Thus, these males were more successful at reproduction, fertilized the eggs of more females, sired more offspring both with their own mate and tended to sire offspring with extra-pair mates. The grade of the plumage colouration is evidently an important factor in sexual choice (Balenger et al, 2009). …”