MATE SAMPLING AND ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES IN FEMALE PIED FLYCATCHERS (FICEDULA-HYPOLEUCA)

Models of mate sampling strategies predict that choosiness should decr ease throughout the breeding season due to increasing costs of delayin g mating. Therefore, individuals who start searching mates relatively late, should spend less time on sampling, and sample fewer candidates compared to early individuals. We observed mate searching behavior of female pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) by radio-tracking in stud y areas with 6-12 unpaired males. Contrary to the prediction, the obse rved numbers of males sampled by the searching females increased with time, i.e. late arriving females visited more males than early arriver s. However, this seems to be due to more active sampling of males in s hort time by late-arriving females. The observed sampling pattern sugg ests some kind of comparison tactic, which seems, however, to be very variable among individual females. Mate-assessing females were charact erized by a remarkably cryptic behavior, which may be 1) a way of gain ing honest information about the male mating status or male/territory quality, or 2) a way of avoiding courtship costs.