Handsome men may turn the heads of women, but for those less attractive, sociability and friendliness also seem to seduce the fairer sex. The same is true for male house finches, according to a new study.
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By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: July 12, 2010
Female house
finches prefer to mate with males with the reddest feathers, but dull-colored
males make themselves more appealing by acting more social before mating season,
according to a study in the September issue of the American
Naturalist. The researchers found that the
duller a male bird was in color, the more likely he was to engage with multiple
social groups. Birds in a social group flock and forage together and any bird
can belong to multiple groups.
Drab-looking male finches drifted from group to group in the winter, the researchers found. By mating season in the spring, the less attractive males tended to have the same level of mating success as the most colorful, attractive males.
?Females have limited options to chose from and this is a way for males to manipulate their chances to find mates, by placing themselves in certain settings,? said Kevin Oh, an evolutionary biologist at Cornell University and the study?s lead author. The least attractive, or most yellow, males were four times as likely to interact with multiple social groups then the most attractive, or reddest, males, Dr. Oh said. House finches are found across North America, but Dr. Oh and his co-author, Alexander Badyaev of the University of Arizona, studied wild populations in Arizona.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13obfinch.html?ref=science