Song and delayed plumage maturation: assessing their effect on extrapair paternity in the Saffron Finch

VIVIANA MASSONI; CAROLINA ISABEL MIÑO; MARÍA JULIANA BENITEZ SALDIVAR

Cape May, New Jersey

Congreso; Joint Meeting 2019 - AFO/WOS; 2019

Asoociation of Field Ornithologists - Wilson Ornithological Society

Males? plumage coloration and song could be relevant for females? mate choice, and affect males? opportunities to gain extra-pair paternity (EPP).Saffron Finches (Sicalis flaveola pelzelni) are socially monogamous Thraupidae; males show delayed plumage maturation: second-year (SY) males are drab female-like, while after-second-year (ASY) males are overall golden yellow.Given thatSY males are fully capable of mating and raising broods, we compared their ability to obtain EPP with that of ASY males at Chascomús, Argentina. Parentage was assigned to 198 nestlings from 54 broods across three breeding seasons and we found moderate extra-pair paternity rate per season. We obtained plumage color and paternity data from 47 males, and song recordings from 26 of those males. Using generalized linear mixed models we examined, separately, the relationship between loss of paternity of at least one nestling in the males? social broods and success in siring extra pair nestlings in other nests with song and plumage coloration variables. We included males? body condition, breeding synchrony, brood size, and proportion of SY males within the assemblage in a given season as predictors in the models. Paternity gain was not significantly explained either by males? plumage or song traits. The song model that better explained paternity loss included male condition and syllable duration (males producing longer syllables lost paternity to males singing shorter syllables). Therefore, males' plumage coloration may not play a relevant role in females? mate choice, but syllable duration may influence their paternity loss.