| Affiliation: | (1) Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, 1117 Budapest, Hungary;(2) Molecular Ecology Group, Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, Ecology Building, 223 62 Lund, Sweden |
| Abstract: | Recently, a number of studies have found adaptive brood sex ratio (BSR) manipulation in birds. The reason for such manipulations is thought to be the different reproductive value of male and female nestlings. Several studies have found that parental quality and food supply can affect BSR, however results are sometimes inconsistent between species and populations. We investigated BSR patterns in a Hungarian population of Collared Flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) and compared the results with those obtained in a previous study of the same species in Sweden. We found two significant differences. First, the male forehead patch size, a heritable, sexually selected trait, affected the brood sex ratio in the Swedish population, but not in our Hungarian study population. This difference might be a consequence of the different information content of the forehead patch size in the two populations. Second, a seasonal shift in BSR (more sons late in the season) was observed in the Hungarian, but not in the Swedish population.Communicated by J. Graves |
