Table 1. Mean ± SE female and male contact initiations/h in presence of an unpaired bird that was either more or less attractive than the focal bird.

	Female contact	Male contact
Unpaired female
More attractive (7)	24.71±6.2*	10.43±3.7
Less attractive (7)	15.71±3.1*	7.86±0.7*
Unpaired male
More attractive (5)	13.60±3.9	24.00±4.3*
Less attractive (9)	12.67±4.2	12.11±1.68**

Asterisk denotes significant differences⁽¹⁾ between the number of direct contact initiations when the pair was alone and when an unpaired bird was present. The number of tested pairs is given in brackets.

⁽¹⁾probability values from paired t-tests:

^*p<0.05;

^**p<0.01.