Parental-care responses by yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) to simultaneous manipulations of food abundance and brood size

1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 916-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.A. Lozano ◽  
R.E. Lemon
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Food Abundance ◽  
Dendroica Petechia ◽  
Yellow Warblers

Parental-care responses by yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) to simultaneous manipulations of food abundance and brood size

1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 916-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
G A Lozano ◽  
R E Lemon
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Food Abundance ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Parental Effort ◽  
Dendroica Petechia ◽  
Supplemental Food ◽  
Yellow Warblers ◽  
Partial Compensation

Theoretical models view biparental care as a state of equilibrium that can be maintained only when the amount of parental care provided by one parent depends on the amount provided by its mate. According to these models, biparental care results when a decrease in the contribution of one parent is partially, but not completely, compensated for by an increase in the contribution of the other parent. Furthermore, this equilibrium state can only be stable if any other external factor affects male and female effort equally. We used yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia) to examine whether changes in brood size and food abundance affect the parental contributions of the sexes equally. Supplemental food did not affect parental care by either sex, but brood size did. Both males and females provided more to larger broods, and in large broods only, their provisioning rates increased with nestling age. Parental effort per nestling was similar in the two sexes, being higher for smaller broods and increasing with nestling age. Based on brood biomass, parental effort was greater for smaller broods, and decreased with nestling age in females only. Therefore, in agreement with current models of the maintenance of biparental care, the effects of brood size and nestling age on parental care did not differ significantly between the sexes. Nonetheless, data from other species and theory indicate that the costs and benefits of providing parental care differ between the sexes, so it is unlikely that biparental care can be maintained solely by a partial compensation response.

scholarly journals Offspring telomere length in the long lived Alpine swift is negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 20170188 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Criscuolo ◽  
Sandrine Zahn ◽  
Pierre Bize
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Telomere Length ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Growth Conditions ◽  
Early Growth ◽  
Foster Mother ◽  
Biological Father ◽  
Accumulation Of Damage ◽  
Older Males

A growing body of studies is showing that offspring telomere length (TL) can be influenced by the age of their parents. Such a relationship might be explained by variation in TL at conception (gamete effect) and/or by alteration of early growth conditions in species providing parental care. In a long-lived bird with bi-parental care, the Alpine swift ( Apus melba ), we exchanged an uneven number of 2 to 4-day-old nestlings between pairs as part of a brood size manipulation. Nestling TL was measured at 50 days after hatching, which allowed investigation of the influence of the age of both their biological and foster parents on offspring TL, after controlling for the manipulation. Nestling TL was negatively related to the age of their biological father and foster mother. Nestling TL did not differ between enlarged and reduced broods. These findings suggest that offspring from older males were fertilized by gametes with shorter telomeres, presumably due to a greater cell division history or a longer accumulation of damage, and that older females may have provided poorer parental care to their offspring.

scholarly journals Environmental noise influences song frequency of Yellow Warblers (Dendroica petechia) in Grand Teton National Park

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 79-90
Author(s):  
Charles E. Taylor ◽  
Yi-Ju Wang ◽  
Martin L. Cody
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
National Park ◽  
Peak Frequency ◽  
Dendroica Petechia ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Minimum Frequency ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Yellow Warblers ◽  
Song Frequency

We explored how Yellow Warblers (Dendroica petechia) alter their songs when encountering noise in Grand Teton National Park. Different strategies for avoiding signal masking are used by other species of birds, yet there is a lack of information of birds’ responses to higher noise levels–above 65 dB; such levels are often found in National Parks that have many visitors. In this study, we investigated singing behavior of Yellow Warblers when facing noise that ranged from 30 dB to 80 dB. In these preliminary results, we found that some features of Yellow Warblers did not appear to change with background noise level, including mean minimum frequency, bandwidth and song length. Other song features we studied did show small but statistically significant changes with higher background noise, including the peak frequency and the mean minimum frequency, both of which were significantly negatively correlated with the level of background noise. This result is different from the positive correlations that are typically observed. We speculate that this difference is due to the very high dB levels of background noise that we observed.   Featured photo bywagon16 on Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/G2W6Bk

Age-related variation in song repertoire size and repertoire sharing of yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia)

1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1926-1929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Cosens ◽  
Spencer G. Sealy
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Dendroica Petechia ◽  
Repertoire Size ◽  
Song Repertoire ◽  
Fledging Success ◽  
Related Variation ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Yellow Warblers ◽  
Clutch Initiation

Songs of male yellow warblers (Dendroica petechia), ranging from 1 to 6 years of age, were recorded in the spring and summer of 1984. Recorded repertoire size and number of songs shared with neighbours varied positively with age in the spring but not in summer. Neither clutch initiation date nor fledging success varied with age or number of songs shared but both measures of reproductive success varied with size of recorded song repertoire.

Egg-size variation in Yellow Warblers: apportionment of parental investment and the brood-survival hypothesis

1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 1008-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Percy N. Hébert ◽  
Spencer G. Sealy
Keyword(s):  
Egg Size ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Size Variation ◽  
Relative Mass ◽  
Egg Mass ◽  
Passerine Birds ◽  
Dendroica Petechia ◽  
Brood Survival ◽  
Yellow Warblers ◽  
Clutch Initiation

It has been hypothesized that in passerine birds the larger size of last-laid eggs is part of a brood-survival strategy. We examined the usefulness of the brood-survival hypothesis in explaining intraclutch variation in egg mass of Yellow Warblers (Dendroica petechia). In 4- and 5-egg clutches, egg mass increased significantly with laying order. Although last-hatched nestlings in broods of 4 had higher survival rates than their counterparts in broods of 5, there were no differences in the absolute or relative mass of last-laid eggs in clutches of 4 and 5 eggs. In addition, the mass of last-laid eggs that hatched but did not produce a fledgling was not significantly different from that of last-laid eggs that did produce a fledgling. Finally, the relative mass of last-laid eggs was also not correlated with hatch spread or with date of clutch initiation. The results of this study do not support the brood-survival hypothesis.

Variation in the Mating System of a Biparental Cichlid Fish, Cichlasoma Panamense

Behaviour ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 95 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 181-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J. Wootton ◽  
T.J. Townshend
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Attack Rate ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Time Away ◽  
A Current

AbstractCichlasoma panamense is a biparental, substrate-spawning cichlid which breeds during the dry season in Panamanian streams. In one population some males helped to defend their offspring throughout the period of parental care but many deserted their mates to achieve additional spawnings leaving females to guard alone. The proportion of C. panamense guarding in pairs increased throughout the breeding season. This was associated with an increase in the rate with which parental cichlids attacked potential brood predators and an increase in brood size. The increase in attack rate was due to the crowding of fishes as water levels receded during the dry season and especially to the increasing numbers of newly independent cichlids which congregated in the shallow water areas where C. panamense brood. The sex ratio in the population was strongly biased towards females. Males spent more time away from the brood than females which enabled them to find and spawn with unmated females. The attack rate of females brooding alone was not significantly higher than that of those with mates and their foraging rate not significantly lower although they spent less time away from their brood. In a more productive stream where population density was high, breeding was almost entirely in monogamous pairs. The rate at which parents attacked potential predators was higher, the sex ratio was 1:1 and brood size was large. The male's decision to guard or desert appears to depend on his opportunities for further matings, the ability of the female to guard alone and the value of a current brood. These results agree with the predictions of game theory models of parental care.

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