Birds-of-Paradise Project: Female Choice

Introduction The Birds The Human Endeavor Evolution in Isolation About the Project

Home > Evolution in Isolation

Female Choiceand the Birds-of-Paradise

Seven Features of Female Choice

Put a male and female bird-of-paradise side by side and its always the bright, glittering, fluttering, posing male
that grabs our attention. But the females are just as importantif not more soin determining what birds-of-
paradise look like. Heres why:

1. It started with Darwin

Female choice is a form of sexual selectionCharles Darwins other big idea, after natural selection. For
years, Darwin wrestled to understand how ostentatious display traitslike a bird-of-paradise's plumes or a
peacock's tailcould improve the survival of an individual. Eventually he grew so frustrated that he wrote to a
friend, "The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!" But finally he hit on the
elegant solution of sexual selection: traits that improve an individual's mating success can be selected by (Left) Western Parotia male performing "ballerina dance" for a female; (Right)
female choice the same way as traits that improve survival. Sexual selection by female choice offered a solution Charles Darwin (Image by Messrs. Maull and Fox, ca. 1854, via Wikimedia
Commons.)
to the otherwise baffling evolution of beauty in nature.

2. It puts females in the evolutionary drivers seat

In birds-of-paradise, males do the showing-off and females do the choosing. This makes females into arbiters
of evolution"they shape the course of evolution through their choices. Over millions of years, their
preferences for what's attractive have trumped most other factors influencing how males look and act. Beauty
has trumped flying ability, inconspicuousness from predators, thermoregulation, and so on. The male birds-of-
paradise we see today are the physical manifestation of many generations of past female preferences.

3. You can watch it happening

Take a look at how intently female birds-of-paradise examine displaying males. Its pretty apparent that sexual Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise female inspecting male.
selection by female choice is occurring as these birds crane their necks and nearly fall off their perches to check
out males. Theyre so choosy that it takes many visits to many males before anything happens. A long-term
field study in the 1980s found that female Lawes's Parotias visited displaying males up to six weeks before and
up to six weeks after mating! Ed and Tim have seen other female birds-of-paradise spend 56 hours a day
watching males display. Extreme female choice indeed.

4. Its a matter of taste, at first

How does an extravagant display begin to evolve? It starts with an innate, possibly random preference in a
female for a showy male trait. In some animals, these display traits actually give females information about the
relative health and condition (sometimes called quality) of potential mates. But evidence is accumulating that
this doesnt always have to be the case. Elaborate display traits can evolve simply because they are attractive
because they satisfy some innate preference that females have. When a female with such a preference
chooses a male with a showy trait, their offspring inherit both the showy trait and the preference, reinforcing the Male and female Superb Bird-of-Paradise.
pattern.

5. Beauty creates diversity

Female preference for aesthetic traits is one element that has allowed so many strange birds-of-paradise to
evolve. Unlike traits that indicate a mates quality, a simple preference for aesthetics or beauty opens up
many possibilities. As an analogy, think of fashion items like shoes, phones and phone cases, or purses. Our
preferences for them are only partly based on how well they function. Theyre largely based on how they appeal
to us. If we chose items based on their function (comfort, reliability, etc.), we wouldnt expect to see the riot of
colors, shapes, and styles that we see. All this diversity exists because we judge them as objects of beauty
rather than utility. There are nearly infinite ways for them to be beautiful, but many fewer ways for them to be
functional. In the same way, as the birds-of-paradise seem to show, there are many ways for animals to be
aesthetically attractive.
Males from right to left: Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, Huon Astrapia, Stephanies
Astrapia.

6. Its not a level playing field

It may sound cruel, but lots of male birds-of-paradise will never get the chance to mate. This is why female
choice is so powerful. Individual choices by females tend to converge on a handful of malesthe ones
perceived to be the most attractive. As a consequence, those few males father most of the offspring. The
genetic makeup of the next generation is heavily influenced by those few chosen males. Similarly, the next
generation of females reflects their mothers preference for those same male traits. The outcome at the end of a
year is that the genetic score is lopsidedskewed toward a handful of successful malesand pushes
evolution of the display trait a little farther along each time.

http://www.birdsofparadiseproject.org/content.php?page=112[04-05-2014 01:52:42]
Birds-of-Paradise Project: Female Choice

7. Females are as extraordinary as males

A male bird-of-paradise may be a squawking, yellow-and-red bird hanging upside down from a tree branch, but Four female Carola's Parotias carefully observe a male's display.
the female is a bird that can minutely observe this bizarre scene and make an informed decision. The "biology
of female choice" is just as extreme (and extremely interesting) as the biology of male displaysand much less
well understood.

All About Birds | Video & Sound Archive | YouTube | Facebook | Educator Resources

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact Us

Copyright 2014

http://www.birdsofparadiseproject.org/content.php?page=112[04-05-2014 01:52:42]