THE lovey-dovey monogamy which the untutored eye may perceive in pairs of songbirds, raising their young together in nests constructed by joint endeavour, has long been exposed by zoologists as a fantasy. Even by the adulterous standards of the ornithological world, though, the red-backed fairy-wren, an Australian bird, is a champion. According to a study just published in Biology Letters by Daniel Baldassarre of Cornell University and his colleagues, almost half of fairy-wren nestlings are not fathered by the male that is helping to feed them, and 60% of nests contain at least one such chick. For male fairy-wrens, then, trying to guarantee paternity is a continual struggle, and Dr Baldassarre and his team wondered which strategies worked best.
Broadly, a male fairy-wren has two options. He can try to discourage interlopers by beating them up, or he can woo his mate to encourage her not to stray. He does this by duetting with her. That both keeps her attention and may suggest to other males that she is, indeed, loyal.
To see which was the better approach Dr Baldassarre and his...Continue reading
Source: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1WLpwEG
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