| Summary: | Social monogamy is common among birds, while gen etic monogamy is supposed to be rare. I investigated th e genetic mating system of the Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus, where, as in seabirds and most other long-lived and socially monogamous birds, extra-pair paternity (EPP) is typically rather infrequent. Parentage was determin ed using six microsatellite markers for 79 chicks from 30 broods. In this study population, I found evidence of allelic inconsistencies between putative parents and chicks in 43% of nests, resulting from both EPP and intraspecific brood parasitism (ISBP). Extra-pair paternity was detected in 33% (10/30) of broods, and 20% (16/79) of all nestlings were sired by extra-pair males. Furthermore, 9% (7/79) of chicks out of 5 nests (17%) were not the offspring of either memb er of the pair , indicating ISBP. Th ese findings reveal a moderate rate of ISBP and a high rate of EPP compared with other related species, and shows that Black-headed Gulls successfully participate in extra-pair copulations.
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