Opportunistic behavioural observation data for the manuscript titled "Behavioural differences between ornamented and unornamented male Red-backed Fairywrens (Malurus melanocephalus) in the nonbreeding season"

This data set consists of the opportunistic behavioural observations described in the manuscript "Behavioural differences between ornamented and unornamented male Red-backed Fairywrens (Malurus melanocephalus) in the nonbreeding season". Each row corresponds to a pairwise behavioural interaction between fairywrens.

Observation_ID = unique identifier for each behavioural observation (or row)

Date = The date the observation was conducted in YYYY-MM-DD format

Year = The year the observation was conducted

Time = The time that the observation started in 24-hour format and displayed as "#H #M #S" (e.g., "13H 15M 0S" for 1:15 pm); please note that the time was recorded to the nearest minute, so "#S" is always "0S"

Behavior = the social behaviour observed occurring between the sender and receiver fairywren; in this data set, only "Allopreening", "Courtship", and "Chasing" are included 

Sender_ID = A unique identifier for the fairywren observed sending a behavioural signal (e.g., for courtship, this would be a male performing a courtship display); for allopreening, the distinction between sender and receiver is arbitrary; please note that "Sender_ID" and "Receiver_ID" are equivalent to color band combinations for the fairywrens we observed, but they were generated independently of the "Bird_ID" column from our focal behavioural data set ("RBFW3_Anon_Data_210720.csv"), so the two data sets cannot be linked using these IDs

Sender_plumage_category = Categories of plumage scores as per Karubian 2002; the same scoring system is used in this data set as in our focal behavioural data ("RBFW3_Anon_Data_210720.csv") except that Unornamented = DULL, Moulting = MOULT, and Ornamented = BRIGHT

Sender_sex = Sex of the bird sending the behavioural signal ("M" for male or "F" for female) 

Sender_age = Age of the bird sending the behavioural signal obtained through banding records

Sender_age_exact = Either "exact" if we were able to determine a sender's precise age or "minimum" if only a minimum estimate (e.g., after second year) was possible

Receiver_ID = A unique identifier for the fairywren observed receiving a behavioural signal (e.g., for courtship, this could be a female being courted by a male)

Receiver_plumage_category = Categories of plumage scores as per Karubian 2002

Receiver_sex = Sex of the bird receiving the behavioural signal ("M" for male or "F" for female) 

Receiver_age = Age of the bird receiving the behavioural signal obtained through banding records

Receiver_age_exact = Either "exact" if we were able to determine a receiver's precise age or "minimum" if only a minimum estimate (e.g., after second year) was possible

Social_mate = Whether or not the sender and receiver observed interacting during the nonbreeding period became social mates during the upcoming breeding season 

Prev_breeding_group = Whether or not the sender and receiver observed interacting during the nonbreeding season belonged to the same breeding group (social mate, offspring, or related helpers) during the previous breeding season; here, "1" indicates previous breeding group members and "0" indicates that two birds did not belong to the same breeding group previously

In this data set, the value "NA" represents missing data.