Not all who wander are lost: Prospecting and settlement of male floaters in the spotless starling

Floaters are non-breeding individuals that lack a territory or a breeding site. In many species, they can be seen visiting the territories of conspecifics before obtaining their own breeding site. Prospecting behavior is hypothesized to benefit floaters through information acquisition, enhanced site familiarity and dominance over other floaters. Here, we used detections of PIT-tagged male floaters in a population of spotless starlings (Sturnus unicolor). We investigated how floater activity varied across breeding stages and how their visits influenced subsequent nest site selection. We also tested whether distance, reproductive success, and phenotype and fate of the former owner influenced final settlement. We found that floater activity increased during the nestling-rearing period as nestling age increased. Floaters were more likely to breed near the area where they had been detected the previous year, suggesting that prospecting allows males to secure a foothold in their future settle..., , # Data from: Not all who wander are lost: Prospecting and settlement of male floaters in the spotless starling

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.6hdr7src0](10.5061/dryad.6hdr7src0)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Dataset Overview

This dataset contains the data required to replicate the analyses in Redondo et al. 2025.

In this work, we used detections of passive-integrated-transponder tagged (PIT-tagged) male floaters in a population of spotless starlings (*Sturnus unicolor*) to investigate how floater activity varied across breeding stages and how their visits influenced subsequent nest site selection. Floaters were captured before breeding season began and were marked with a PIT-tag that allowed us to monitor their visits to nests of conspecifics and future settlement.

We used long-term data (10 breeding seasons) on the intrusion behaviour and posterior nest site choice of male floaters in a population of spotless starlings. Our objective was two-fold:

1. Describing ...,