Aggressive Social Organization in Nectarivorous Birds

I argue that a net benefit model of aggressive social organization is consonant with observed variation between territorial and dominance systems. For nectarivores net benefits are associated with obtaining nectar. Costs are time and energy associated with aggression and possible risks of injury. The fitness criterion probably varies across situations and may be long or short-term. An important problem for behaviorists is to understand the position in a time hierarchy at which particular social interactions are important.