Despite the ecological importance of pair bonding, ontogeny bond formation remains poorly understood. We capitalized on long-term high-resolution tracking social interactions across replicated colonies captive zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, to map dynamics relationships prior reproduction and identify role that relationship quality plays in subsequent reproductive performance. found pairs ...

Tropical and subtropical species typically experience relatively high atmospheric temperatures during reproduction, and are subject to climate-related challenges that are largely unexplored, relative to more extensive work conducted in temperate regions. We studied the effects of high atmospheric and nest temperatures during reproduction in the zebra finch. We characterized the temperature with...

Today, there is good knowledge of the physiological basis of bird colour vision and how mathematical models can be used to predict visual thresholds. However, we still know only little about how colour vision changes between different viewing conditions. This limits the understanding of how colour signalling is configured in habitats where the light of the illumination and the background may sh...

Natural selection favours those individuals with effective anti-predator defences. The presence of sentinels is known to be an effective form of defence amongst stable groups of individuals within cooperative and polygynous breeding systems. However, the presence of sentinels in the more prevalent socially monogamous breeding systems remains overlooked as an important benefit of such partnershi...

There is increasing evidence that exposure to stress during development can have sustained effects on animal phenotype and performance across life-history stages. For example, developmental stress has been shown to decrease the quality of sexually selected traits (e.g. bird song), and therefore is thought to decrease reproductive success. However, animals exposed to developmental stress may com...

Research on mate choice has primarily focused on preferences for quality indicators, assuming that all individuals show consensus about who is the most attractive. However, in some species, mating preferences seem largely individual-specific, suggesting that they might target genetic or behavioral compatibility. Few studies have quantified the fitness consequences of allowing versus preventing ...

Slow flight is extremely energetically costly per unit time, yet highly important for takeoff and survival. However, at slow speeds it is presently thought that most birds do not produce beneficial aerodynamic forces during the entire wingbeat: instead they fold or flex their wings during upstroke, prompting the long-standing prediction that the upstroke produces trivial forces. There is increa...