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© 1996 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Accepting unrelated broods helps replacement male yellow-headed blackbirds attract mates

David F. Gori, Sievert Rohwer and Jennifer Caselle

Department of Zoology and Burke Museum DB-10, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

Address reprint requests to S.Rohwer at the address below

ABSTRACT

Replacement male yellow-headed blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) did not destroy broods sired by the previous territorial male and they showed no aggression toward females with unrelated broods. To test whether their tolerance of unrelated young was misdirected normal parental care, we removed males from experimental territories after primary nests were completed but before secondary nests were initiated. Replacement males fed young that they presumably had sired in secondary nests and ignored foster young in primary nests, whereas control males fed young in their primary nests. To identify potential benefits of accepting unrelated young, we analyzed patterns of within-season breeding dispersal and of female settlement on territories following nest losses to predators. Although some female yellowheads do renest on the same territory following nest failures, the number of nests initiated on territories after a predation event was significantly lower than the number initiated on territories without predation over the same period of time. This implies that late-settling females use the number of active or failed nests and/or the number of females on a territory when choosing where to breed. If replacement males that accepted unrelated offspring attract more new females in the remainder of the current breeding season than infanticidal males, then tolerance of unrelated young by replacement males may be adaptive in some polygynous birds.

Key words: adoption, birds, infanticide, renesting dispersal, replacement males, yellow-headed blackbird.


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