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Social Environment and the Evolution of Delayed Reproduction in Birds.

Liam U Taylor1,2, Josef C Uyeda3, Richard O Prum1

  • 1Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.

Systematic Biology
|August 12, 2025
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Summary

Bird species often delay reproduction after physical maturity due to complex social behaviors like cooperative breeding and nesting in colonies. This study confirms that sociality drives delayed age at first reproduction (AFR) in birds.

Keywords:
Adolescencecolony nestingcooperative breedingdeferred breedingfast-slow continuumimmaturejuvenileleklife history evolutionsociality

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Ornithology
  • Behavioral Ecology

Background:

  • Avian life histories exhibit delayed reproduction post-growth, a phenomenon not fully explained by physical maturation alone.
  • Intraspecific studies link complex social environments (cooperative breeding, colonies, leks) to delayed reproduction, suggesting sociosexual development is key.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To formally propose and test the hypothesis that complex social environments drive delayed age at first reproduction (AFR) in birds.
  • To analyze the evolutionary patterns of AFR across a large avian phylogeny using comparative methods.

Main Methods:

  • Phylogenetic comparative methods were employed across 963 bird species.
  • Phylogenetic regressions, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models, and hidden state Markov models were utilized to analyze AFR evolution in relation to social behaviors.

Main Results:

  • Phylogenetic regressions indicated increased AFR in colonial and lekking birds, and cooperatively breeding males.
  • Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models revealed distinct evolutionary regimes with higher AFR in social lineages (cooperative, colonial, lekking).
  • Hidden state Markov models confirmed a net increase in delayed reproduction associated with sociality, controlling for confounding factors.

Conclusions:

  • The evolution of sociality significantly reshapes life history evolution dynamics in birds, particularly AFR.
  • Comparative analyses of broad traits like AFR must account for lineage-specific evolutionary histories and social complexities.