Do male Hooded Warblers guard their mates when their paternity is most at risk?

Abstract

Males of socially monogamous species may benefit from using behavioral tactics to ensure their paternity of the young produced by their social mates. We tested whether male Hooded Warblers (Wilsonia citrina) use mate guarding and high song output in an attempt to prevent extra-pair copulations (EPC) by their mates. In this species, most EPC intrusions occur when females produce conspicuous chip vocalizations. Using radiotelemetry, we tracked the male response to female chipping throughout her fertile and non-fertile periods. Our results show that males do not intensively guard their mates by closely associating with them or by increasing their song rate. Mate guarding was not influenced by male age or their own EPC behavior. Female influence on fertilizations and male pursuit of EPC may render mate guarding an ineffective strategy for ensuring paternity in Hooded Warblers.