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Mate choice in the brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla): are settlement decisions, divorce and extrapair mating complementary strategies?

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Abstract

In socially monogamous birds, females may express mate preferences when they first select a breeding partner, through divorce and subsequent breeding dispersal to a new partner and through extrapair mating. We examined settlement patterns, divorce and breeding dispersal in a sedentary Australian passerine, the brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla), in relation to two traits known to influence extrapair paternity (male age and male size). Settlement decisions, divorce and territory switching behaviour were all female strategies that reduced their likelihood of breeding with 1-year-old males. Females preferred to settle in territories with 2+ -year-old males, were more likely to divorce 1-year-old males, and only switched territories if they had an opportunity to form a new pair bond with an old male. In contrast, female settlement and divorce decisions were not influenced by male size. Female thornbills obtain a direct benefit from preferring older males as social mates because breeding success improves with male age in brown thornbills. Nevertheless, divorce rates in this species were low (14% of pair bonds were terminated by divorce), and individuals rarely switched territories following the death of a mate. Both of these mating strategies appeared to be primarily constrained by the distance adults moved to initiate a new pair bond (1–2 territories) and by the limited availability of unpaired older males in the immediate neighbourhood.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the staff of the Australian National Botanic Garden for allowing us to work in the Garden. We would like to thank Mike Double for assistance in the laboratory, Anne Peters and Matt Beitzel for help in the field and Mike Webster and two anonymous referees for useful comments on the paper. This research was supported by an Australian Research Council grant to A.C. and an ANU/OPRS postgraduate scholarship to D.G. The work complies with all regulations in Australia and was conducted under permits from the ANU Animal Experimentation and Ethics Committee, ACT Parks and Wildlife, Canberra Nature Park and the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Wildlife Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., V5A 1S6, Canada

    David J. Green & Elizabeth A. Krebs

  2. Department of Zoology and Entomology, School of Life Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia

    David J. Green & Elizabeth A. Krebs

  3. Evolutionary Ecology Group, Division of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

    Andrew Cockburn

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  1. David J. Green
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  2. Elizabeth A. Krebs
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  3. Andrew Cockburn
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Correspondence to David J. Green.

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Communicated by M. Webster

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Green, D.J., Krebs, E.A. & Cockburn, A. Mate choice in the brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla): are settlement decisions, divorce and extrapair mating complementary strategies?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55, 278–285 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0679-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0679-z

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