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Ornithology > Chapter 12 - Mates > Flashcards

Chapter 12 - Mates Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the purpose of large size, elaborate courtship displays, intricate songs and fancy plumage?

A

Female assessment of male quality/condition.

Achievement of dominance between males & access to females.

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2
Q

Which sex has the greatest gamete investment?

A

Females

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3
Q

In the Long-tailed Widow Bird Experiment, the length of the males’ tails were: shortened, kept the same, kept the same but cut and glued back together, or elongated. Which male had the biggest harem?

A

The male with the elongated tail.

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4
Q

What is a lek?

A

males come together to perform courtship displays. The dominant male(s) have the highest copulation frequencies.

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5
Q

What is the most common avian mating system?

A

Monogamy

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6
Q

What is monogamy?

A

1 male : 1 female

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7
Q

What is polygyny?

A

1 male : multiple females

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8
Q

What is polyandry?

A

1 female : multiple males

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9
Q

What is cooperative breeding?

A

When other birds, usually family, help a breeding pair build a nest & care for their nest & chicks.

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10
Q

What group of birds are known for their elaborate breeding displays and plumage?

A

Birds of Paradise

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11
Q

What group of birds are well-known for building elaborate display courts made of grass or sticks and decorating them?

A

Bowerbirds

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12
Q

What is cuckoldry?

A

when mated females are unfaithful and most of the eggs’ paternity is from another male(s)

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13
Q

What groups of birds come together to form leks?

not a comprehensive list

A

Manakins, Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Grouse

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14
Q

What is polygynandry?

A

males and females both mate with multiple partners and form a communal breeding unit.

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15
Q

What birds practice polygynandry?

not a comprehensive list

A

Tinamous, Ratites (Ostrich, Rhea, Emu), Smith’s Longspurs, Dunnocks, Bicknell’s Thrush

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16
Q

What birds practice polygyny?

not a comprehensive list

A

Red-winged blackbird, Bobolink, Marsh & House Wrens, Indigo Bunting, Montezuma Oropendola

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17
Q

What is promiscuity?

A

1 male : many females
no resources are provided to the female choose a mate by display & only purpose is fertilizing her eggs; she raises chicks on her own elsewhere.

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18
Q

What birds practice promiscuity?

not a comprehensive list

A

Hummingbirds (Family Trochilidae), Grouse (Family Phasianidae)

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19
Q

What birds practice cooperative breeding?

Not a comprehensive list

A

Florida Scrub-Jay, Mexican Jay, Groove-billed Ani, Acorn Woodpecker

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20
Q

Considering the periods of Prenest, Nest building/egg laying, incubation, nestlings in cooperative breeding; at what time(s) are the female helpers’ estradiol levels lower than the breeding female(s)?

A

Prenesting only

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21
Q

Considering the periods of Prenest, Nest building/egg laying, incubation, nestlings in cooperative breeding; at what time(s) are the male helpers’ testosterone levels higher than the breeding male(s)?

A

Never

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22
Q

What is sexual dimorphism?

A

When males & females look different due to sexual selection.

23
Q

What is sexual selection?

A

contests among males for mates and female preferences for particular males

24
Q

What do the “good-genes” hypotheses for sexual selection suggest?

A
  1. Exaggerated male plumage and courtship displays truthfully signal genetic or physiological superiority.
  2. ornamented plumage provides an index to a male’s health.
25
Q

What aspects of genetic or physiological superiority might exaggerated courtship displays and plumage serve to index?

A
  1. the males superior survival skill.
    e. g. a male peacock’s plumage is a handicap, so to survive long enough to display he must have superior stamina or abilities to escape predation.
  2. (health) stamina by duration of display.
  3. health by quality of plumage. e.g. blood parasites reduce the sheen of ultraviolet coloration of bird feathers with increasing infection.
26
Q

Give an example of how health can be judged by the quality of a birds plumage.

A

e. g. blood parasites reduce the sheen of ultraviolet coloration of bird feathers with increasing infection.
e. g. In Red Jungle Fowl, male comb size is strongly affected by the amount of testosterone which affects physical condition.
e. g. In Red Jungle Fowl, male comb size is negatively effected by intestinal nematode worms.

27
Q

How do male Rock Ptarmigans, an alpine grouse, camouflage themselves before their summer molt?

A

They are white from winter during the lek season and afterwards use mud & dirty water to camouflage themselves.

28
Q

How do female red-winged blackbirds choose their mate: male quality or territory quality?

A

Territory quality, however in some parts of the country such as Indiana where males help rear young, male age & experience was a 2ndary criterion

29
Q

What is the source of sexual selection in Red-winged Blackbirds? i.e. red & yellow epaulettes

A

Male competition

30
Q

What is the source of sexual selection in Long-tailed Widowbirds? i,e, their long tail

A

female selection, their tail length doesn’t effect their ability to hold onto a territory.

31
Q

What do the “arbitrary choice and runaway selection” hypotheses for sexual selection suggest?

A

an intrinsic female preference for fancier males. Once the process of favoring slightly more elaborate displays or plumage begins it may go to extremes inherited through imprinting

32
Q

What kind of courtship display do birds in the suborder Pelicaniform have?

A

bowing

33
Q

What birds are in the suborder Pelicaniform?

A

Pelicans, cormorants, anhingas and boobies

34
Q

What courtship display do boobies and gannets have in common?

A

head-wagging

35
Q

What courtship display do anhingas and cormorants have in common?

A

kink-throating and pointing

36
Q

What courtship displays do boobies, anhingas and cormorants have in common that pelicans don’t?

A

sky pointing, wing waving and hop

37
Q

What kind of courtship displays does the boat-billed heron have?

A

emphasizes sounds made with its bill & tall-rocking (swaying while standing tall)

38
Q

Why would promiscuous males gather in leks in which only a few dominant birds mate most frequently?

A
  1. Hot spot Model - males gather where they are most likely to find females
  2. Hot shot Model - males gather around experienced attractive or dominant males to increase their chance of being noticed
  3. Female preference model - females prefer to visit large clusters of males to smaller clusters
    …in the 1st 2 models good regional positioning offsets costs especially if they have the chance of becoming dominant. In the last model, the cluster allows females to make better comparisons between males than if they were scattered.
39
Q

Explain kinship relationships among lekking males. What species practice it?

A

Wild Turkey, Black Grouse, Peacocks.
Males form leks or display near related males. In Black Grouse, the males of a lek are more closely related to any males in another lek. Male Wild Turkey siblings court females together & the most dominant gets to mate. (It has been documented that dominant males in coalitions mate more than solo males.)

40
Q

What is the “inclusive fitness through kin selection” theory?

A

a bird can promote its own genes by helping kin with similar genes.

41
Q

What species has the highest known frequency of multiple paternity for any lekking bird species?

A

The Ruff (& Reeves)

42
Q

Describe a maypole bower (made by a bowerbird)?

A

consists of sticks built around a central sapling or maypole

43
Q

Describe a avenue bower (made by a bowerbird)?

A

walled structures placed on the south side of a display court

44
Q

How many species of bowerbirds build maypole bowers?

A

5

45
Q

How many species of bowerbirds build avenue bowers?

A

8

46
Q

What types of bowers do bowerbirds build?

A
  1. Maypole
  2. Avenue
    Note: The species that build each type are more closely related to each other than to the species that build the other type. Modest colored species build more elaborate bowers than brightly colored species.
47
Q

What is the percentage of bird species that practice mating rituals such as promiscuity and polygamy?

A

less than 10%

48
Q

What is the percentage of socially monogamous bird species studied are also genetically monogamous?

A

14%

49
Q

What is polygamy?

A

any breeding system including multiple mates of the opposite sex.

50
Q

What percentage of bird species practice polygamy?

A

3%

51
Q

Approximately what percentage of bird species are polygynous?

A

2%

52
Q

What are the 3 types of polygyny?

A
  1. Resource defense - males control access to females indirectly through monopolizing critical resources
  2. harem defense - males control access to females directly
  3. Male-dominance - males compete for females by sorting out a dominance hierarchy or by directly demonstrating quality through display
53
Q

Approximately what percentage of bird species are polyandrous?

A

<1%

Note: extra-pair fertilizations blur the distinctions between this and monogamy.

Ornithology (8 decks)

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