Does the Male’s Seductive Song Overpower His Appearance? Sexual Selection in Zebra Finches, Taeniopygia guttata Erin Moore Department of Biology, York College of Pennsylvania Introduction -Zebra finches are typically monogamous birds in which the female chooses a mate based on plumage coloration and symmetry, leg and beak coloration, size, and song. -Despite the many studies on mate choice in zebra finches there is still very little known. Many of these studies seem to go in circles in how the female chooses a mate. -Burley et al. (1982) found that females have a preference for males wearing red leg-bands over any other color. Also, this preference of red coloration is correlated to the preference for red beak coloration. However, Collins et al. (1994) found that when song was added as a choice, there was no longer a preference for beak coloration. -This suggests that there may be a hierarchy of characteristics in how females choose a mate. Hypothesis H1: Females will show a stronger preference for song over leg-band colorations. H2: Females will show more interaction during red leg-banded singing tests compared to the green leg-banded singing tests Methods Test 1 Both models with red leg bands 1 Singing 1 Not singing Test 2 Both models with green leg bands 1 Singing 1 Not singing Test 4 1 Model with red leg bands Singing 1 Model with green leg bands Not Singing Test 3 1 Model with green leg bands Singing 1 Model with red leg bands Not Singing N=8 Females 2 Male Models 4 Choice Tests Results Conclusions -Females showed a stronger preference for song over leg band coloration. -Females showed no difference in interaction between the two different color leg- band song tests. -Song might give more information than leg band coloration, showing some form of hierarchy may be used in mate choice. -Leg band colorations may not be as informational. When song is not a factor females use this as a way of obtaining information about the male. But when song is present it overrules the information given by the band coloration. Literature Cited 1. Burley, N., Krantzber, G., and Radman, P Influence of colour-banding on the conspecific preferences of zebra finches. Animal Behaviour 30: Burley, N Wild zebra finches have band-color preferences. Animal Behaviour 36(4): Collins, S.A., Hubbard, C., and Houtman, A.M Female mate choice in the zebra finch - the effect of male beak colour and song. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 35: Forstmeier, W Female resistance to male seduction in zebra finches. Animal Behaviour 68: Hunt, S., Cuthill, I.C., Swaddle, J.P., and Bennett, A.T.D Ultraviolet vision and band-colour preferences in female zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata. Animal Behaviour 54: Nolan, P.M., and Hill, G.E Female choice for song characteristics in the house finch. Animal Behaviour 67: Tomaszycki, M.L., and Adkins-Regan, E Is male song quality important in maintaining pair bonds? Behaviour 143: Acknowledgements I would like to thank God for giving me the knowledge, patience, and time to complete my project. Dr. Rehnberg for all of his guidance and support throughout my entire project. Figure 1. Schematic of apparatus looking in from top Figure 2. A picture of the setup for the trials that were run for testing the mate preferences of the females. Figure 3. Total number of times the female was at each model's perch during the different trials (n=8). R represents red banding and G represents green banding. RSound means the red banded model was the one with sound. While GNo Sound means the green banded model was the one with no sound. Figure 4. Mean of data collected for same color bands. R represents red banding and G represents green banding. Error bars represent one standard error of the mean. Asterisks indicate a significant difference between the number of times on each perch from a binomial test (p<0.05). Figure 5. Mean of data collected for opposite color bands. Error bars represent one standard error of the mean. Asterisks indicate a significant difference between the number of times on each perch from binomial test (p<0.05).