Female Settling Patterns and Polygyny: Tests of a Neutral-Mate-Choice Hypothesis

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Abstract
We tested predictions from the polygyny-threshold, sexy-son, and neutralmate-choice hypotheses regarding the pattern of female settlement and the reproductive consequences for a polygynous population of yellow-headed blackbirds. Females did not settle in the order predicted by either the polygyny-threshold or sexy-son hypotheses. In addition, female reproductive success was not affected by settlement order in a manner consistent with the polygyny-threshold or sexy-son hypotheses. Consistent with the neutral-mate-choice hypothesis, females appeared to settle randomly in suitable breeding habitats, causing the males holding the largest territories to acquire the most mates. Such random settlement by females is an optimal behavior because their reproductive success is not affected by other females or by variation in the features of either males or territories. Although the neutral-mate-choice hypothesis will not be applicable to all polygynous species, its success in predicting female settling patterns in our population of yellow-headed blackbirds suggests that it should be one of the alternatives considered in future attempts to explain polygynous matings.