Sexual Selection and the Barn Swallow

The main theme of Sexual Selection and the Barn Swallow is that sexual selection is important and affects many aspects of animal life such as mating behaviour, parental care, host-parasite interactions, and migration strategies. Birds with extravagant feather ornaments are the standard example of sexual selection. Here the selective advantages of a long tail are investigated for a common bird, the barn swallow, in the context of sexual selection theory. This study constitutes a major empirical test of the theoretical predictions and will be of especial interest to students of behavioural and evolutionary ecology.