caa a22 4500 465782779 CHVBK 20180323111959.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170327e19901001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00164900 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00164900 Norris K. Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, South Parks Road, OX1 3PS, Oxford, UK aut Female choice and the quality of parental care in the great tit Parus major [Elektronische Daten] [K. Norris] Summary: Previous work on great tits suggested that female mate choice was based on the characteristics of the male rather than the quality of his territory. The aim of this paper was to see whether females were deriving any direct benefits as a result of such choice by comparing male plumage colouration (the size of the central black breast-stripe) with the quality of parental care provided by both members of the pair. Males with large stripes were more likely to defend their broods because their nest attentiveness was higher increasing the chances of predator detection. Males with large stripes produced heavier fledglings primarily as a result of faster growth early in the nestling period. Previous work on great tits has shown that heavier fledglings have a higher survival probability than lighter ones. The results of this study can more easily be explained by differences in parental quality between males rather than as a result of variation in female or territory quality. Therefore, female great tits could increase their reproductive success by pairing with males with a large stripe because such males appear to be better quality parents. This suggests that female choice in the great tit may concern, at least in part, the quality of male parental care. Springer-Verlag, 1990 Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Springer-Verlag 27/4(1990-10-01), 275-281 0340-5443 27:4<275 1990 27 265 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00164900 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00164900 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Norris K. Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute, South Parks Road, OX1 3PS, Oxford, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Springer-Verlag 27/4(1990-10-01), 275-281 0340-5443 27:4<275 1990 27 265 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer