The Evolution of Female Body Size in Red-Winged Blackbirds: The Effects of Timing of Breeding, Social Competition, and Reproductive Energetics

Langston, Nancy; Freeman, Scott; Rohwer, Sievert; Gori, Davide

doi:10.2307/2409505

Cited by 26 publications

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“…Finally, the positive relationship between response song rates and reproductive success might occur because female response song rate is related to a third, unmeasured variable that positively influences reproductive success. For example, in other female songbirds, response to a simulated intruder has been positively related to predator defense behavior (Clutton-Brock, 2009;Cain et al, 2011;Tobias et al, 2012;Cain and Rosvall, 2014), body size (Langston et al, 1990;Martin, 1995;Cain and Ketterson, 2012), and maternal care (Rosvall, 2011a;Cain and Ketterson, 2013). Further, a robust response might also be a reflection of overall activity level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female song rates in response to simulated intruder are positively related to reproductive success

2015

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Bird song is well studied in males as a sexually selected behavior. However, although song is also common among females, it is infrequently examined and poorly understood. Research suggests that song is often used as a resource defense behavior and is important in female-female competition for limited resources, e.g., mates and territories. If so, song should be positively related to fitness and related to other resource defense behaviors, but this possibility has rarely been explored. Here we examine fitness estimates in relation to spontaneous song rates and song rates in response to a simulated intruder (playback), in the superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus), a cooperatively breeding songbird. We also determine how song rates relate to other territorial defense behaviors. Song rate in response to playback, but not spontaneous song rate, was positively related to nest success and the number of fledglings produced by successful females. Further, response song rate was also correlated with other territorial defense behaviors (latency to respond and flights). This evidence supports the hypothesis that female song may be used in the context of female-female competition to improve access to limited reproductive resources, and suggests that song may provide direct fitness benefits.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female song rates in response to simulated intruder are positively related to reproductive success

2015

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“…The consequences of size variation in female red‐winged blackbirds are unclear. Social competition appears to favour larger females in some circumstances (Langston et al ., 1990) but not in others (Roberts & Searcy, 1988; Muma & Weatherhead, 1991). In the only direct analysis, Weatherhead & Clark (1994) found that adult female size was under stabilizing selection for survival.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits to sexual size dimorphism in red-winged blackbirds: the cost of getting big?

Dufour

2005

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

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A fundamental assumption of sexual selection theory is that the reproductive advantage of large size is balanced by a survival disadvantage. Previous studies of the sexually size-dimorphic red-winged blackbird ( Agelaius phoeniceus ) have indicated that the largest adult males have a survival advantage, suggesting that the limit to male size may be the cost of getting big rather than the cost of being big. If the cost of getting big limits male size, then starvation rates for male nestlings should exceed those of female nestlings. In addition, given high heritability of body size, larger parents should lose more nestlings, particularly males, to starvation. We tested these predictions for redwinged blackbirds using data on the sex of 1356 fledglings from 465 nests collected over 10 years. We found no disadvantage for male nestlings relative to females -49% of fledglings were male and previous research had shown that 48% of hatchlings are male. We also found no disadvantage for male nestlings that would become large adults (i.e. those with larger parents) -partial brood loss and fledging sex ratios did not vary with mid-parent size. Given no apparent disadvantage to large size for males either as adults or as nestlings, this leaves only the period between fledging and adulthood during which natural selection might limit sexual size dimorphism, although other mechanisms might explain the failure to find a limit to male size.

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“…Large birds tended to breed before small birds, and assuming that the effect of body size contributed fully to repeatability, then ∼40% of the repeatability of breeding date could be attributed to differences in female size. Why large birds had an advantage is unclear, but may relate to social dominance (Langston et al 1990) or the ability to mobilize resources for egg‐laying (Fogden and Fogden 1979, Houston et al 1983, 1995, Jones 1991). The fact remains, however, that the majority of individual variation in timing of breeding was not repeatable, and could not be accounted for by differences in body size or condition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intrapopulation variation in reproduction by female eastern kingbirds Tyrannus tyrannus: the impacts of age, individual performance, and breeding site

Murphy¹

2004

Journal of Avian Biology

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Murphy, M. T. 2004. Intrapopulation variation in reproduction by female eastern kingbirds Tyrannus tyrannus : the impacts of age, individual performance, and breeding site. Á/ J. Avian Biol. 35: 252 Á/261.I used data from a 13-year study of eastern kingbirds Tyrannus tyrannus from central New York, USA, to evaluate the relative impact of female age and body size on reproduction. I also calculated repeatabilities of reproductive traits for both females and the sites where they bred in an attempt to evaluate the relative contribution of each to intrapopulation variation in reproduction. Female age had a strong influence on timing of breeding (breeding date advanced by one day for each year of life), but was not a significant source of variation for clutch size, egg mass, number of young to hatch or fledge, or total seasonal production. Repeatabilities of breeding date for females and sites were both significant (0.284 and 0.181, respectively), but the only other significant repeatabilities were for female clutch size (0.282) and female egg mass (0.746). Amongyear repeatabilities of breeding date for females who bred at two or more sites over their lifetime were as high as those for females that were site faithful. Thus, breeding date was probably affected independently by the female and site. No measure of productivity exhibited a repeatable pattern in comparisons made among females or sites. All reproductive traits were entered as dependent variables in a series of stepwise multiple regression analyses in an attempt to identify female properties (size, lifespan and condition) that might be linked proximately to differences in breeding statistics. I found that (a) large birds tended to breed the earliest, (b) clutch size was independent of female size, condition and lifespan, (c) female body size and egg size were correlated positively, but (d) production of young was independent of all measured female properties. Reproduction appears to be linked more closely to the female than to the site. Body size accounts for a portion of the repeatable portion of breeding date and egg mass, but most of the intrapopulation variation in these and other traits remained unexplained.

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The Evolution of Female Body Size in Red-Winged Blackbirds: The Effects of Timing of Breeding, Social Competition, and Reproductive Energetics

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Female song rates in response to simulated intruder are positively related to reproductive success

Female song rates in response to simulated intruder are positively related to reproductive success

Limits to sexual size dimorphism in red-winged blackbirds: the cost of getting big?

Intrapopulation variation in reproduction by female eastern kingbirds Tyrannus tyrannus: the impacts of age, individual performance, and breeding site

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