Low level of extra-pair paternity between nearest neighbors results from female preference for high-quality males in the yellow-rumped flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia).

ABSTRACT: Extra-pair copulation is considered to be a means by which females can modify their initial mate choice, and females might obtain indirect benefits to offspring fitness by engaging in this behavior. Here, we examined the patterns of extra-pair paternity and female preferences in the yellow-rumped flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia). We found that female yellow-rumped flycatchers are more likely to choose larger and relatively highly heterozygous males than their social mates as extra-pair mates, that the genetic similarity of pairs that produced mixed-paternity offspring did not differ from the similarity of pairs producing only within-pair offspring, and that extra-pair offspring were more heterozygous than their half-siblings. These findings support the good genes hypothesis but do not exc

SUBMITTER: E M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5336208 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature