Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 30, Issue 4, November 1982, Pages 1237-1243
Animal Behaviour

Factors affecting the formation and maintenance of pair bonds in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata

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Abstract

There is evidence that the process of pair formation starts within minutes of the introduction of unfamiliar zebra finches. Males courted their eventual mates in preference to other females, and some females solicited their mates, during the first recording session of this study. The full establishment of the pair bond probably takes longer than this, because clumping and allopreening between mates were not usually recorded until the second or third bay of introduction. Tactile contact, between partners, or at least the opportunity for them to come close together, is important in bond formation, but established bonds can be maintained by auditory contact alone. Birds re-pair almost immediately in the total absence of the mate, but the formation of this new bond does not destroy the original one.

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    Two birds were defined as clumped when they were detected at a distance of <80 pixels (i.e. when the distance between two codes was equal to or less than the body width of one bird; Supplementary Fig. S1). Clumping appears shortly after unfamiliar males and females are introduced and increases in frequency over time (Silcox & Evans, 1982) (e.g. Appendix 1, Fig. A2). During the breeding season, we also tracked individuals at the nestboxes.

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