# Timing and social dynamics of divorce in wild great tits: a phenomenological approach

## TL;DR

This study shows that great tits begin forming new social bonds or ending old ones during the non-breeding season, which affects their breeding behavior later.

## Contribution

The study provides the first evidence of behavioral signatures of divorce in great tits during the non-breeding season.

## Key findings

- Divorcing pairs show distinct social association patterns from early winter.
- Newly forming pairs gradually resemble faithful pairs over time.
- Faithful and divorcing birds display diverging behaviors over winter.

## Abstract

Social behaviour is a key part of life for many species. In monogamously breeding species, social associations between breeding partners are particularly important. Selection of a breeding partner often begins well before reproduction, and this process can affect subsequent reproductive success. Thus, the non-breeding season can shape behaviour during the breeding season. However, it is currently unknown how breeding season outcomes can impact associate choice during the non-breeding season, as studying this requires high volumes of cross-context individual social data. This study used 3 years of wild great tit social data from Wytham Woods, Oxford, UK, to examine social associations between pairs classified with respect to prior and future breeding status (divorcing, faithful, new and juvenile). We found distinct patterns of social association in ‘divorcing’ pairs from early winter, suggesting that divorce is an ongoing behavioural process. Newly forming pairs initially associated similarly to divorcing pairs, but became similar to faithful pairs over time. On a finer spatiotemporal scale, the behaviour of faithful and divorcing birds diverged over the winter. These results provide the first evidence of a behavioural signature of divorce during the non-breeding season in great tits, while suggesting that different behaviours may drive behavioural divorce at different times.