Local adaptation in Citril finches: Divergent selection, asymmetric movements, preference for familiars and other stories

Juan Carlos SENAR
Museu de Ciencies Naturals de Barcelona jcsenar@bcn.cat

The Citril finch (Serinus citrinella) is a small granivorous non-territorial Cardueline finch breeding at high den-sities in the Pyrenees. In this area, the interaction between a Mediterranean influence and high altitudes creates a significant contrast between north- and south- facing slopes, so that patches of highly differentiat-ed habitats appear at very close proximity. Analyses have shown that birds inhabiting the two slopes have dif-ferentiated in behaviour, diet, breeding ecology, population dynamics, morphology and genetics. Move-ments between the two populations are asymmetric, from south (i.e. bad quality) to north (i.e. good quality) facing slopes, in a dynamics that we coined of "sources and pools". The populations intermix during winter, when pairing takes place, but the mechanism of mating preference for familiar individuals maintains the dif-ferentiation. The system can be maintained by a good adaptation to bad localities.

Recent publications:
Senar, J. C., F. Mateos-González, F. Uribe, and L. Arroyo. 2013. Familiarity adds to attractiveness in matters of siskin mate choice. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London series B 280:20132361.
Björklund, M., A. Borras, J. Cabrera, and J. C. Senar. 2015. Increase in body size is correlated to warmer winters in a passer-ine bird as inferred from time series data. Ecology and Evolution 5:59–72.
Senar, J. C., L. Z. Garamszegi, V. Tilgar, C. Biard, G. Moreno-Rueda, P. Salmón, J. M. Rivas, P. Sprau, N. J. Dingemanse, A. Charmantier, V. Demeyrier, H. Navalpotro, and C. Isaksson. 2017. Urban Great Tits (Parus major) Show Higher Distress Call-ing and Pecking Rates than Rural Birds across Europe. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 5:163.