Density and kinship interactively affect natal dispersal in a social bird

Dispersal in animals is influenced by diverse environmental cues, among which population density and kinship are key drivers. High density can promote dispersal by intensifying intraspecific competition or inhibit it through group-living advantages. Likewise, kin interaction may enhance dispersal via kin competition or limit it through kin-selected fitness gains. However, the interplay between them remains inadequately elucidated. We investigated how density and kinship interacted to influence natal dispersal in silver-throated tits (Aegithalos glaucogularis), a social species showing facultative cooperative breeding during the breeding season and group living thereafter. We found female-biased natal dispersal, consistent with male-biased helping behaviour. For males, the natal dispersal distance was negatively associated with the number of male siblings fledging from the same nest, and this relationship intensified with increasing fledgling density around the natal nest, indicating that density can modulate kin selection’s inhibiting effect on dispersal. Furthermore, with increasing male sibling number, fledgling density’s effect on male dispersal distance shifted from positive to negative, suggesting that potential kin selection opportunity can reverse the direction of the density effect. These findings demonstrate that density and kin selection opportunities interact to shape dispersal dynamics, offering new insights into their combined roles in driving the evolution of dispersal strategies.