Research Objectives:

1. Quantify relative importance of public information, personal reproductive success with social mate, and extra-pair paternity in explaining patterns of site fidelity for males and females.
   
   
2. Test whether adult males use public information cues for breeding site fidelity when fledglings in adjacent territories are not their genetic offspring.
   
   
3. Test whether adult males use public information more often than adult females because females may use public information cues, but are unlikely to have fledglings in adjacent territories.

Management Implications:

Improving our understanding of breeding site fidelity will inform land managers about what kinds of reproductive success are needed for migratory songbirds to keep breeding areas occupied.

Project Summary:

Extra-pair paternity may have an important role in the use of public information for breeding site fidelity in songbirds.  Public information is observable cues from other individuals that may indicate habitat quality.  Most previous research on site fidelity focused on understanding the role of personal reproductive success with a social mate.  Recently, researchers found that songbirds use the presence of young in adjacent territories for making site fidelity decisions based on this public information.  However, extra-pair copulations are common in many songbird species, typically occurring among individuals in adjacent territories.  Therefore the question remains: are songbirds making site fidelity decisions based on the presence of fledglings in adjacent territories because the presence of fledglings indicate habitat quality?  Or are songbirds making site fidelity decisions based on the presence of fledglings in adjacent territories because individuals are assessing their own productivity through extra-pair copulations with birds in adjacent territories?  I am investigating this untested question of whether songbirds use public information for site fidelity decisions even when that information does not indicate reproductive success through extra-pair paternity.  I am studying site fidelity patterns of white-eyed vireos (Vireo griseus) by territory mapping, nest monitoring, color-banding, and genotyping individuals breeding in an 80 ha patch of woodland in central Texas from 2008 to 2010.  My results will improve our understanding of why songbirds breed in particular locations and how individuals use personal and public information of productivity for site fidelity decisions.