Females fought over these males. Males with greater song times and repertoires may be in better shape and therefore better able to care for the young. They have such small territories that both parents forage off the territory a lot so that territory size is not a good indicator for the females. When the beam was broken by someone entering the bower, the camera started filming, so matings were recorded 212 matings at 22 bowers Number of decorations especially blue snail shells and blue feathers, measures of bower symmetry and density of sticks used in bower construction were all correlated with male mating success. When the removed decorations daily from 11 bowers and left 11 others alone, bowers raided recorded significantly fewer matings Malte Andersson and African widowbirds Males have a tail that is about a meter long which is displayed in courtship.
Males also have territories which are useful resources for the females.
Andersson experimentally lengthened a set of birds controlled for territory quality and shortened others. Females preferred males with longer tails.