When aggressiveness could be too risky: linking personality traits and predator response in superb fairy-wrens by Jack Bilby, Diane Colombelli-Négrel, Andrew C. Katsis, Sonia Kleindorfer

“…We used playback experiments in superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus), a common Australian songbird with a cooperative breeding system, to assess whether three personality traits measured during short-term captivity correlated with behavioural responses in the wild to a perceived nest and adult predator, the grey currawong (Strepera versicolor). …”
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Best of both worlds? Helpers in a cooperative fairy-wren assist most to breeding pairs that comprise a potential mate and a relative by Niki Teunissen, Marie Fan, Michael J. Roast, Nataly Hidalgo Aranzamendi, Sjouke A. Kingma, Anne Peters

“…Here, we test this hypothesis, while controlling for potential direct and indirect benefits from raising offspring, in purple-crowned fairy-wrens (Malurus coronatus) exhibiting variation in social group composition, and thus, breeder value. …”
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No effect of testosterone or sexual ornamentation on telomere dynamics: A case study and meta‐analyses by Gregory T. Taylor, Alexandra McQueen, Justin R. Eastwood, Andréaz Dupoué, Bob B. M. Wong, Simon Verhulst, Anne Peters

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Sperm Numbers as a Paternity Guard in a Wild Bird by Melissah Rowe, Annabel van Oort, Lyanne Brouwer, Jan T. Lifjeld, Michael S. Webster, Joseph F. Welklin, Daniel T. Baldassarre

Subjects: “…fairy-wren…”
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Inbreeding, inbreeding depression, and infidelity in a cooperatively breeding bird by Hajduk, G, Cockburn, A, Margraf, N, Osmond, H, Walling, C, Kruuk, L

“…Here, we test these assumptions using 26 years of data for a cooperatively breeding, socially monogamous bird with high female infidelity, the superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus). Although inbred individuals were rare (∼6% of offspring), we found evidence of inbreeding depression in nestling mass (but not in fledgling survival). …”

Use of Airborne Laser Scanning to assess effects of understorey vegetation structure on nest‐site selection and breeding performance in an Australian passerine bird by Richard S. Turner, Ophélie J. D. Lasne, Kara N. Youngentob, Shukhrat Shokirov, Helen L. Osmond, Loeske E. B. Kruuk

“…Our results indicate that ALS can identify vegetation characteristics relevant for superb fairy‐wren nest‐site selection, but that nesting preferences are not beneficial under current predation pressures. …”
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