Neighbours' breeding success and the sex ratio of their offspring affect the mate preferences of female zebra finches.

The magnitude of the decrease, however, was different depending on whether the neighbouring pair had reproduced successfully or not: unsuccessful females that had observed another unsuccessful pair decreased their preference for their breeding partner by only 8.0%, which is not significantly different from zero (unilateral t-test: t 5 = 0.134, P = 0.134), whereas, unsuccessful females whose neighbours had reproduced successfully spent 42.5% more time with the neighbouring male after reproducing, which is a marginally significant change (unilateral t-test: t 5 = 2.284, P = 0.0534).

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