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Sex-specific aggression and sex ratio in wintering finch flocks: serins and siskins differ

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Abstract

Males are dominant over females in many bird species. This may lead to male monopolisation of resources whenever food is scarce or clumped and secondarily to lower female survival rates. As a result of the consequent male-biased sex ratio in the adult population, competition may arise either (1) between males and females, as males attempt to exclude females from feeding patches, or (2) between males because females do not pose a competitive threat. We recorded agonistic interactions between males and females in wintering foraging flocks of serins (Serinus serinus) and siskins (Carduelis spinus) to test for inter-specific differences. Most of the aggressive interactions in serins were between males and females, whereas in siskins they were between males. We also compared sex ratios for each species during the winter, determined from separate trapping efforts over an 11-year period, to test whether the direction of aggression by males (i.e. male/male; male/female) relates to variations in female survival rates. The proportion of females was smaller in winter than in autumn for serins, but differences in siskins were negligible. Results are interpreted in relation to the social organization displayed by both species studied.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Alex Middleton and Lluïsa Arroyo for suggestions to improve the paper. We are also grateful to José Luis Copete and Didac Valera for their help in field work, Lluïsa Arroyo for her help in the laboratory and Hermanitas de la Asunción for allowing us to work in their property. This is a contribution to research project CGL 2009-10652 from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spanish Research Council. Birds were handled with the permission of the Catalan Ringing Office (ICO) and the Departament de Medi Ambient, Generalitat de Catalunya.

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  1. Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology Associate Research Unit (CSIC), Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, Passeig Picasso s/n, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    J. C. Senar & J. Domènech

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  1. J. C. Senar
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  2. J. Domènech
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Correspondence to J. C. Senar.

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Senar, J.C., Domènech, J. Sex-specific aggression and sex ratio in wintering finch flocks: serins and siskins differ. acta ethol 14, 7–11 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-010-0084-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-010-0084-3

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