Colour preferences in nest-building zebra finches

• It is not always clear why nest-building birds choose the materials they do.
• We compared nest and food colour preferences in male zebra finches.
• Birds preferred blue nest material, but had no food colour preferences.
• It appears that nest material colour preferences are specific to that context.

Some bird species are selective in the materials they choose for nest building, preferring, for example, materials of one colour to others. However, in many cases the cause of these preferences is not clear. One of those species is the zebra finch, which exhibits strong preferences for particular colours of nest material. In an attempt to determine why these birds strongly prefer one colour of material over another, we compared the preferences of paired male zebra finches for nest material colour with their preferences for food of the same colours. We found that birds did indeed prefer particular colours of nest material (in most cases blue) but that they did not generally prefer food of one colour over the other colours. It appears, then, that a preference for one colour or another of nest material is specific to the nest-building context.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: insert SI title.