Low level of extra-pair paternity between nearest neighbors results from female preference for high-quality males in the yellow-rumped flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia)

Extra-pair copulation is considered to be a means by which females can modify their initial mate choice, and females might obtain indirect benefits to offspring fitness by engaging in this behavior. Here, we examined the patterns of extra-pair paternity and female preferences in the yellow-rumped flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia). We found that female yellow-rumped flycatchers are more likely to choose larger and relatively highly heterozygous males than their social mates as extra-pair mates, that the genetic similarity of pairs that produced mixed-paternity offspring did not differ from the similarity of pairs producing only within-pair offspring, and that extra-pair offspring were more heterozygous than their half-siblings. These findings support the good genes hypothesis but do not exclude the compatibility hypothesis. Most female yellow-rumped flycatchers attained extra-pair paternity with distant males rather than their nearest accessible neighboring males, and no differences in genetic and phenotypic characteristics were detected between cuckolded males and their nearest neighbors. There was no evidence that extra-pair mating by female flycatchers reduced inbreeding. Moreover, breeding density, breeding synchrony and their interaction did not affect the occurrence of extra-pair paternity in this species. Our results suggest that the variation in extra-pair paternity distribution between nearest neighbors in some passerine species might result from female preference for highly heterozygous males.