DOI: 10.7280/d1gd7f
title: Data from: Elucidating mutual mate choice

description: Understanding the dynamics of mutual mate choice requires investigation of
 mate preferences of both sexes using a variety of designs, but fewer
 studies have focused on male choice in avian models. Here we conducted two
 experiments on preferences of male zebra finches to study the impact of
 trial design on results. Experimental design varied in number of
 trial participants, inclusion of observer (“audience”) males, and housing
 design for stimulus females. Females were reared on one of two
 diets to enhance variation in mating quality: those reared on a
 protein-supplement diet (HI-diet) were predicted to be more attractive to
 males than (LO-diet) females that did not receive
 supplements. Results differed among trial
 types. Notably, males showed the predicted preference for HI-diet
 females only in the Group Choice experiment, where two male subjects
 simultaneously chose from a field of four females, and all six birds
 interacted freely. In the Dyadic Preference (DP) experiment, a
 single male was allowed to interact with two stimulus females that were
 physically isolated; in half of these trials, audience males were
 present. In DP trials without audience males, test males did not
 express a preference consensus; however, with audience males present, test
 males preferred LO-diet females. Results are consistent with a
 small but growing literature indicating that results of mate choice
 experiments can be highly sensitive to design considerations.
description: Data were collected in the course of laboratory experiments,
 archived by the first author, and statistically analyzed by both authors.
 Analyses were performed in STATA 15.0.
description: Variable labels are
 presented for each Excell sheet tab representing a set of analyses
 reported in the paper. There are a few missing data points for phenotype
 data. Group Choice Female
 Perspective (Table 2, Figure 2) Diet : 1= LO diet; 2 = HI
 diet ID = female
 ID code Proppref
 = proportion of her trials in which female was chosen as mate
 Mass (measured in
 grams) HW =
 headwidth (mm) TSNO = number of tail stripe
 feathers TranTSNO
 = TSNO<sup>2</sup> Beakscore = beak color (Munsell
 Book of Color) Tranbeak =
 1/beakscore<sup>2</sup> Age = female’s age at the time of
 her first trial   Group Choice Male
 Perspective (Figure 3) ID = male ID code Propprefhi = proportion of trials
 in which male chose a HI-diet female Mass (measured in
 grams) HW =
 headwidth (mm) TSNO = number of tail stripe
 feathers Beakscore = beak color (Munsell
 Book of Color) Age = male’s age at the time of
 his first trial   Fecundity trials
 (Table 3, Figure 4) Diet: 1= LO diet; 2 = HI
 diet ID = female
 ID code B4eggmass
 = mean egg mass before LO-female diet switch B4CS = mean clutch size before
 LO-female diet switch B4Fecundity = B4eggmass x
 B4CS Aftereggmass
 = mean egg mass after LO-female diet switch AfterCS = mean clutch size after
 LO-female diet switch AfterFecundity = Aftereggmass x
 AfterCS Mass =
 mass when female assigned to fecundity trial TSNO = Number of tail stripe
 featherss TranTSNO =
 TSNO<sup>2</sup> HW = headwidth (mm)
 Beakscore = beak color
 (Munsell Book of Color) Proppref = proportion of trials
 in which female was chosen in Group Choice trials (not all Fecundity
 females participated in those trials, as described in Methods)
 Age = age at time of first
 “B4” clutch   Female
 Competition (Table 4) Diet: 1= LO diet; 2 = HI
 diet ID = female
 ID code Mass
 (measured in grams) HW = headwidth (mm)
 TSNO = number of tail
 stripe feathers Beakscore = beak color (Munsell
 Book of Color) Age = female’s age at the time
 she entered Competition trial <i>Behaviors (Before and
 After males were added to trial):</i> Ag = mean incidence of female
 initiating aggressive interactions with other females TranAg = square root
 (Ag) Agby = mean
 incidence of female being recipient of aggressive interactions from other
 females Tranagby
 = square root (Agby)   DP [Dyadic Preference]
 Female Phenotype (Text only) Diet : 1= LO diet; 2 = HI
 diet ID = female
 ID code Mass
 (measured in grams) HW = headwidth (mm)
 TranHW =
 1/HW<sup>3</sup> TSNO = number of tail stripe
 feathers TranTSNO
 = TSNO<sup>2</sup> Beakscore = beak color (Munsell
 Book of Color) Tranbeak =
 Beakscore<sup>3</sup> Age = female’s age at the time of
 her first trial Propprefaudab = Mean proportion
 of social time with chooser males when audience was absent Propprefaudpres = Mean proportion
 of social time with chooser males when audience was present
   DP Female Affiliation
 (Table 5) Diet : 1= LO diet; 2 = HI
 diet ID = female
 ID code Proptime
 = Proportion of male’s social time a female received in a given
 trial Totaffbeh =
 Number of Affiliative behaviors female had with male in a given
 trial Trantotaffbeh = square root
 (Totaffbeh)   DP Male Perspective
 (Influence of Test Order/Audience Effect) – Figure 5 and Figure
 6; Tables 6,7, 8 ID = male ID Mass (measured in
 grams) HW =
 headwidth (mm) TSNO = number of tail stripe
 feathers TranTSNO
 = TSNO<sup>2</sup> Beakscore = beak color (Munsell
 Book of Color) Testtype: 1 = audience males
 absent ; 2 = audience males present Testorder: 1 = audience males
 absent; 2 = audience males present Sumtime = total social time spent
 with stimulus females (minutes) Transumtime
 = sumtime<sup>12</sup>/(10<sup>23</sup>)
 Propprefhi = proportion of
 social time spent with HI-diet females