Familiarity, dominance, sex and season shape common waxbill social networks

In gregarious animals, social network positions of individuals may influence their life-history and fitness. Although association patterns and the position of individuals in social networks can be shaped by phenotypic differences and by past interactions, few studies have quantified their relative importance. We evaluated how phenotypic differences and familiarity influence social preferences and the position of individuals within the social network. We monitored wild-caught common waxbills (Estrilda astrild) with radio-frequency identifiers in a large mesocosm during the non-breeding and breeding seasons of two consecutive years. We found that social networks were similar, and that the centrality of individuals was repeatable, across seasons and years, indicating a stable social phenotype. Nonetheless, there were seasonal changes in social structure: waxbills associated more strongly with opposite-sex individuals in breeding seasons, whereas in non-breeding seasons they instead assorted according to similarities in social dominance. We also observed stronger assortment between birds that were introduced to the mesocosm at the same time, indicating long-lasting bonds among familiar individuals. Waxbills that had been introduced to the mesocosm more recently occupied more central network positions, especially during breeding seasons, perhaps indicating that these birds had less socially-differentiated associations with flock members. Finally, individual differences in color ornamentation and behavioral assays of personality, inhibitory control, and stress were not related to network centrality or association patterns. Together, these results suggest that, in gregarious species like the common waxbill, social networks may be more strongly shaped by long-lasting associations with familiar individuals than by phenotypic differences among group members.