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Copulation behavior and paternity in the chaffinch

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Summary

We investigated two aspects of sperm competition in a wild population of chaffinches Fringilla coelebs: copulation behavior and genetic parentage determined by DNA fingerprinting. Pairs copulated at a high rate before laying, peaking at 4.4 copulation attempts per hour on day −3 relative to laying, with an average of 207 copulation attempts (83 behaviorally successful) per clutch. Extra-pair copulation attempts (n = 20) made up 7.8% of all copulation attempts that females were involved in. The rate at which pairs copulated was lower during egg-laying, but there was no evidence that this was due to the male of the pair timing copulations to coincide with an ‘insemination window’; it was more likely due to the fact that females solicited copulations at a lower rate. Both sexes solicited copulations but males solicited mainly extra-pair copulations. DNA fingerprinting showed that 17.0% of chicks (n = 47) in 23% of broods (n = 13) were fathered by a male other than the one paired to their mother. There was no evidence of intraspecific brood parasitism. In three cases where we were able to identify the father of extra-pair offspring it proved to be a neighboring male.

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Author notes

  1. B. C. Sheldon

    Present address: Department of Zoology, Uppsala University, Villägen 9 S-752 36, Uppsala, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, The University of Sheffield, PO Box 601, S10 2UQ, Sheffield, UK

    B. C. Sheldon

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Leicester, University Road, LEI 7RH, Leicester, UK

    T. Burke

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  1. B. C. Sheldon
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  2. T. Burke
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Correspondence to: B.C. Sheldon

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Sheldon, B.C., Burke, T. Copulation behavior and paternity in the chaffinch. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 34, 149–156 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00164185

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00164185

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