Female canary mate preferences: differential use of information from two types of male–male interaction

Abstract

During mate choice, females can assess male quality by sampling one male after the other or by paying attention to the outcomes of male–male interactions. The latter strategy, called eavesdropping, allows females access to information about males' relative quality and therefore reduces the time, energy and other costs associated with searching for a mate. For oscine females, information can be gathered both by listening to male–male singing interactions and by visually observing male–male interactions. To date, however, there has been no comparison of the subsequent behaviour of females according to the specific type of information (acoustic or visual) gathered from male–male interactions. In two successive experiments, we explored how female domestic canaries, Serinus canaria, use visual and acoustic information obtained from a male–male interaction to direct their sexual behaviour. We found that, whereas females preferred the overlapping song of a singing interaction, they avoided the winner of a physical contest over food. The function and range of signals used in these two types of male–male competition may account for this discrepancy. Timing of song during countersinging is the expression of ritualized dominance relationships using a long-range secondary sexual trait, whereas threat displays used in food competition are not secondary sexual traits and are potentially harmful at close proximity. The timing of song during countersinging seems to be a more important cue for females than dominance over food in determining their sexual behaviour.