Male Parental Care and Extrapair Copulations in the Indigo Bunting

Levels of parental care by male Indigo Buntings (Passerina cyanea) were predicted to be lower and the tendency to pursue extrapair matings greater when (1) the opportunity of additional matings (extrapair copulations) was high, (2) the male was cuckolded, and (3) the clutch or brood size was small. Observations of male care revealed that approximately 10% of all males fed nestlings at least once, whereas more than 30% fed fledglings.

David F. Westneat, The Auk, Vol. 105, No. 1