‘Cheating’ birds change their tune

To avoid ending up with a less committed mate, some female birds listen for red flags in their suitor’s song.

Male pied flycatchers change their song after mating, and females use these song features to tell if a male is already paired, researchers report July 1 in Ethology . The results are consistent with earlier research showing that most female pied flycatchers prefer to settle with an unmated male.

“The female doesn’t really care about the song,” says behavioral ecologist Stephen Nowicki of Duke University, who was not involved in the work. “She cares because the song is a reliable indicator of some quality of the male,” including whether…

Read the full article at SCIENCENEWS.ORG