Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2003 Oct 7;270(1528):2057–2063. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2460

Paternity analysis reveals opposing selection pressures on crown coloration in the blue tit (Parus caeruleus).

Kaspar Delhey 1, Arild Johnsen 1, Anne Peters 1, Staffan Andersson 1, Bart Kempenaers 1
PMCID: PMC1691469  PMID: 14561295

Abstract

In socially monogamous species, extra-pair paternity can increase the variance in reproductive success and thereby the potential for sexual selection on male ornaments. We studied whether male secondary sexual ornaments are selected through within- and/or extra-pair reproductive success in the blue tit (Parus caeruleus). Male blue tits display a bright blue crown plumage, which reflects substantially in the ultraviolet (UV) and previously has been indicated to be an important sexual signal. We show that males with a more UV-shifted crown hue were less cuckolded, which probably resulted from female preference for more ornamented mates. By contrast, however, older males and males with a less UV-shifted hue sired more extra-pair young. This probably did not reflect direct female preference, since cuckolders were not less UV-ornamented than the males they cuckolded. Alternatively, a trade-off between UV ornamentation and other traits that enhance extra-pair success could explain this pattern. Our results might reflect two alternative male mating tactics, where more UV-ornamented males maximize within-pair success and less UV-ornamented males maximize extra-pair success. Since crown colour was selected in opposite directions by within-pair and extra-pair paternity, directional selection through extra-pair matings seemed weak, at least in this population and breeding season. Reduced intensity of sexual selection due to alternative mating tactics constitutes a potential mechanism maintaining additive genetic variance of male ornaments.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (201.3 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Badyaev Alexander V., Hill Geoffrey E., Weckwort Byron V. Species divergence in sexually selected traits: increase in song elaboration is related to decrease in plumage ornamentation in finches. Evolution. 2002 Feb;56(2):412–419. doi: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2002.tb01350.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Brooks R., Kemp D. J. Can older males deliver the good genes? Trends Ecol Evol. 2001 Jun 1;16(6):308–313. doi: 10.1016/s0169-5347(01)02147-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dawson D. A., Hanotte O., Greig C., Stewart I. R., Burke T. Polymorphic microsatellites in the blue tit Parus caeruleus and their cross-species utility in 20 songbird families. Mol Ecol. 2000 Nov;9(11):1941–1944. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2000.01094-14.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dunn P. O., Whittingham L. A., Pitcher T. E. Mating systems, sperm competition, and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in birds. Evolution. 2001 Jan;55(1):161–175. doi: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2001.tb01281.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Griffith Simon C., Owens Ian P. F., Thuman Katherine A. Extra pair paternity in birds: a review of interspecific variation and adaptive function. Mol Ecol. 2002 Nov;11(11):2195–2212. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2002.01613.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hunt S, Cuthill IC, Bennett AT, Griffiths R. Preferences for ultraviolet partners in the blue tit. Anim Behav. 1999 Oct;58(4):809–815. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1999.1214. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jamieson A. The effectiveness of using co-dominant polymorphic allelic series for (1) checking pedigrees and (2) distinguishing full-sib pair members. Anim Genet. 1994 Jun;25 (Suppl 1):37–44. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.1994.tb00401.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Jeffreys A. J., Allen M. J., Hagelberg E., Sonnberg A. Identification of the skeletal remains of Josef Mengele by DNA analysis. Forensic Sci Int. 1992 Sep;56(1):65–76. doi: 10.1016/0379-0738(92)90148-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Johnsen Arild, Delhey Kaspar, Andersson Staffan, Kempenaers Bart. Plumage colour in nestling blue tits: sexual dichromatism, condition dependence and genetic effects. Proc Biol Sci. 2003 Jun 22;270(1521):1263–1270. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2375. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1997.0075. [DOI] [PMC free article] [Google Scholar]
  11. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0308. [DOI] [PMC free article] [Google Scholar]
  12. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0316. [DOI] [PMC free article] [Google Scholar]
  13. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0315. [DOI] [PMC free article] [Google Scholar]
  14. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1999.0704. [DOI] [PMC free article] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sheldon BC, Ellegren H. Sexual selection resulting from extrapair paternity in collared flycatchers. Anim Behav. 1999 Feb;57(2):285–298. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1998.0968. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

RESOURCES