Time spent with a male is a good indicator of mate preference in female zebra finches

Abstract

The time a female spends in front of a male is a commonly assumed but rarely tested measure of female mate preference in mate choice experiments. I investigated whether the mate preference in zebra finch females Taeniopygia guttata castanotis measured as the number of solicitations directed towards a male was related to the time females spent with that male. In a binary choice situation within an aviary, females were allowed to fly freely and visit two individually caged males over a whole day. I measured the females' solicitation displays as the number of tail quivering and/or presentations of nesting material. I also measured the time the females spent in front of each male. Females that solicited did so exclusively to one of the two males and when they did they spent almost twice as much time with that male than with the other. The time these females spent in front of a male correlated positively with the number of solicitation displays directed to that male. The study shows the first experimental link between mate preference measured by courtship displays and preference measured as the time a female spends with a male. Hence, time spent with a male, the most common measure of female mate preference in zebra finches choice experiments is a good indicator of female mate preference.