ResearchBehavioral ecology of avian social and reproductive behavior
I am interested in the biology of social behavior, particularly the interactions between the sexes. I find this subject fascinating because such interactions are a complex mixture of cooperation and conflict. Their study demands integration across multiple levels of biological organization and requires a diversity of approaches. I like the conceptual challenges of understanding the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social interactions. I also enjoy the insights gained by employing different techniques to answer a particular question. My program involves detailed observations of the behavior of free-living animals, use of molecular and biochemical techniques to uncover processes linked to mating interactions, experimental manipulations of key ecological and social factors, and empirical and theoretical work on the developmental and mechanistic processes producing behavior. Two major phenomena are being studied in my lab:
Extra-pair paternity in birds
For most of my career, I have focused on three main questions about avian reproductive behavior: (1) the tradeoff for males between the benefits of pursuing additional copulations versus the benefits of paternal care, (2) the factors influencing female behavior during attempted copulations by both the social mate and extra-pair males, and (3) the consequences of these copulations for the process of sexual selection. I have been studying these questions in red-winged blackbirds and house sparrows, with my students using either those systems or developing their own.
Development and function of plumage signals
More recently I have become interested in how male and female social interactions in a variety of contexts affect reproductive behavior, how signals might be involved in such interactions, and the underlying physiological, psychological, and developmental processes leading to signal production by the signaler and decision-making by the receiver. House sparrows, with their sexually dimorphic plumage, are the focus of most of my current work on these topics.
Selected Publications
-
Westneat, D. F. 1992. Do female red-winged blackbirds engage in a mixed mating strategy? Ethology 92: 7-28.
-
Westneat, D. F., and P. W. Sherman . 1993. Parentage and the evolution of parental behavior. Behavioral Ecology 4: 66-77.
-
Westneat, D. F. 1993. Polygyny and extra-pair fertilizations in eastern red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus). Behavioral Ecology 4: 49-60.
-
Westneat, D. F. 1994. To guard mates or go forage: Conflicting demands affect the paternity of male red-winged blackbirds. The American Naturalist. 144: 343-354.
-
Westneat, D. F. and Birkhead, T. R. 1998. Alternative hypotheses linking the immune system with mate choice for good genes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London , Series B 265: 1065-1073.
-
Hein, W. K., D. F. Westneat, and J. P. Poston. 2003. Sex of opponent influences response to a potential status signal in house sparrows. Animal Behaviour 65:1211-1221.
-
Hupton G., S. Portocarrero, M. Newman, and D. F. Westneat. 2003. Bacteria in the reproductive tract of red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus). The Condor 105: 453-464.
-
Westneat, D. F. and I. R. K. Stewart. 2003. Extra-pair paternity in birds: Causes, correlates, and conflict. Annual Reviews of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 34: 365-396.
-
Westneat, D. F., J. Weiskittle, R. Edenfield, T. Kinnard, and J. P. Poston. 2004. Correlates of immunocompetence in nestling house sparrows. Oecologia 141:17-23.
-
Poston, J. P., D. Hasselquist, I. R. K. Stewart, and D. F. Westneat. In press. Dietary amino acids influence plumage traits and immune response of male house sparrows (Passer domesticus), but not as expected . Animal Behaviour.