Dr. Gerald Borgia Professor Department of Biology Biology-Psychology Building College Park, Maryland 20742 email: borgia@umail.umd.edu phone: (301) 405-6943

Borgia Lab Website

Research Interest: Social Behavior

Dr. Borgia is interested in the evolution of complex adaptations. The focus of most of his research has been the study of mate choice, sexual competition, and the evolution of display. For the past 13 years, he and his students have done field studies of 11 species of bowerbirds in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. Male bowerbirds are unique in clearing and decorating display courts on the ground and building a stick structure, called a bower, nearby. Males of different species build differently shaped bowers and use different types and colors of decorations. 

Charles Darwin speculated about the function of bowers but few scientific studies had been carried out on these species until Dr. Borgia began his work. He and his students have found that the quality of bowers and decorated courts is important both in attracting females to the bower and influencing their tendency to mate once they have arrived. Males produce complex displays at bowers and these also appear important in increasing female willingness to mate. Comparisons of display among species with different bower types have led Dr. Borgia to hypothesize that males evolved to build bowers because the protection offered by bowers increased the number of female visitors viewing the bower owner's displays. Comparisons between and within species have allowed tests of models of mate choice, signaling, and constraints on the cost of display. Collaborating with biologists in Australia, Dr. Borgia has used molecular information to build a molecular phylogeny of the bowerbirds that has been used to determine the evolutionary sequence that bowerbird display traits have evolved. Results show that some complex display traits have had multiple origins and others have been repeatedly lost.

Future research plans include a study of the development of bowerbird display traits. Currently, it is unclear to what extent behaviorally related display traits are products of genetic programming and/or are learned behaviors. By rearing native males in captivity with and without mature tutors, Dr. Borgia will answer this question. His interests span all taxa. Previous field work was on insect mating behavior, and his students have studied blue crabs, wasps, guppies, toque monkeys, tamarins, terns, gulls, and song sparrows.

Representative Publications

Borgia, G. and D. Presgraves, 1998.  Coevolution of elaborated male display traits in the spotted bowerbird: An experimental test of the threat reduction hypothesis.  Animal Behavior, 56: 1121-1128.

Uy, A., Patricelli, G. and Borgia, G. 2000.  Dynamic mate searching tactic allows female satin bowerbirds to reduce searching.  Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B.  267: 251- 256. 

Uy, J.A.C. and Borgia, G. 2000.  Sexual selection drives rapid divergence in bowerbird display traits. Evolution.  54(1): 273-278.

Borgia, G. and Coleman, S. 2000. Co-option of male courtship signals from aggressive display in bowerbirds. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B.  267: 1735-1740.