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© 1998 International Society for Behavioral Ecology
research-article |
Breeding synchrony and extrapair fertilizations in two populations of red-winged blackbirds
aCenter for Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, T. H. Morgan School of Biological Sciences, 101 Morgan Building, University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506-0225, USA bEnvironmental and Resource Sciences/186 University of Nevada-Reno 1000 Valley Road, Reno, NV 89512-0013, USA
Address correspondence to D. F. Westneat. E-mail: westneat{at}ceeb.uky.edu E. M. Gray is currently at the United States Geological Survey,-Biological Resources Division-PIERC, P0 Box 44, Hawaii National Park, HI 96718, USA
ABSTRACT
We tested the relationship between synchrony of breeding and the frequency of extrapair fertilizations (EPFs) in two populations of red-winged blackbirds known to differ in female extrapair behavior. We found no association between the number of simultaneously fertilizable females (temporal neighbors) and EPF rate in either population, although a significant difference between populations in the direction of this relationship (positive where females initiated extrapair copulations and negative where males initiated them) suggested a modest difference in the influence of synchrony. Males losing offspring to EPFs tended to have more fertilizable females at that time than the actual sires in some analyses but not in others. We also tested several assumptions underlying two competing hypotheses for the effects of synchrony. We found no evidence that females pursued extrapair copulations more often when other females were synchronous. Rather, females were more likely to gain EFFs with exirapatr males whose social mates were not yet building their nests. Synchrony also did not consistently affect male pursuit of exirapair copulations or achievement of EPFs. These results suggest that timing of breeding has some effects on extrapair activity, but that those effects are both relatively weak and influenced by other factors that vary between years or populations.
Key words: Agelaius phoeniceus, breeding synchrony, extrapair copulation, extrapair fertilization, red-winged blackbirds.
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