The importance of novelty: Male–female interactions among blue-black grassquits in captivity.

Highlights: [•] We examined female mate choice mechanisms in a captive neotropical passerine. [•] Male attributes were less important to females than novelty in preference trials. [•] Females behaved aggressively towards familiar males when novel ones were available. [•] Males were unresponsive behaviourally to female contact with novel male. [•] They also did not respond physiologically to threat of novel males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]