FEMALE HOUSE FINCHES PREFER COLORFUL MALES - SEXUAL SELECTION FOR A CONDITION-DEPENDENT TRAIT

Male house finches, Carpodacus mexicanus, vary in plumage coloration from pale yellow to bright red. Mate preferences of wild-caught female house finches relative to male coloration were tested in controlled laboratory experiments. In experiments in which they had a choice of four males, test females displayed a significant association preference for the most colourful male presented. Male coloration was independent of age, size, dominance, vocal activity and movement rate in these experiments, and females showed no significant association preference for any of these male characters. When they had females to choose among, test females displayed no association preference. In a concurrent field study in southeastern Michigan, paired males were significantly more colourful than males in the population at large. Variation in male plumage coloration is a function of dietary intake of carotenoid pigments. Female choice based on such a condition-dependent trait supports a key prediction of the honest advertisement model of intersexual seletion. © 1990 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.