Intersexual variation and factors affecting parental care in Western Bluebirds: a comparison of nestling and fledgling periods

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. With ◽  
Russell P. Balda
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Feeding Rates ◽  
Energetic Costs ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Brooding Period ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Nestling Period ◽  
Brood Division ◽  
Western Bluebirds

We compared factors affecting parental feeding rates in Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) between the nestling and fledgling periods to evaluate intersexual variation in parental care. Parents did not adjust the frequency of feeding visits between modal (five young) and below-modal (four or less young) broods during the nestling period. The frequency of parental feeding visits also was not significantly affected by offspring age during the nestling period. Males and females exhibited no significant differences in provisioning offspring, although males maintained a constant level of care throughout the nestling period, whereas females increased feeding visits following the brooding period. During the fledgling period, offspring from below-modal broods were fed at higher rates with increasing age than offspring from modal broods. Broods remained together (siblings averaged 8 m apart) within 200 m of the nest box for a week after fledging. As fledglings became more mobile, they would pursue parents while parents were foraging; parental feeding rates thus tended to increase with fledgling age and distance moved from the nest. Offspring sex did not influence parental care during the fledgling period. Both adults fed fledglings, with males taking sole care of fledglings if females initiated a second clutch soon (7–10 days) after fledging of the first brood. Parental feeding rates increased by 60% during the fledgling period compared with the nestling period. No evidence for brood division during the fledgling period was found. Although brood division represents one way of reducing energetic costs attributable to feeding fledglings, Western Bluebirds exhibit an alternate behavior in which the energetics of raising a brood are shared equally between the parents throughout both the nestling and fledgling periods. This is further facilitated by a close association of young during the fledgling period that may reduce energetic costs related to locating and feeding young.

Fledgling care and male parental effort in the Hooded Warbler (Wilsonia citrina)

1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 576-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley J. Evans Ogden ◽  
Bridget J. M. Stutchbury
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Parental Effort ◽  
Feeding Rates ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Wilsonia Citrina ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Nestling Period ◽  
Brood Division ◽  
Hooded Warblers ◽  
Care Period

We followed family groups of Hooded Warblers (Wilsonia citrina) from hatching through to fledgling independence to determine (i) the duration and extent of parental care of fledglings, (ii) the extent of brood division, and (iii) whether male parental effort in caring for nestlings predicts male effort in caring for fledglings. The 9-day nestling period of Hooded Warblers was followed by 4 – 6 weeks of further parental care of fledged young. Parental feeding rates increased from hatching to when the young fledged from the nest, and males fed nestlings significantly more than females did. At the fledgling stage feeding rates to fledglings were significantly higher than at the nestling stage, but there was no difference in feeding rates between the parents. Parents usually divided the brood of fledglings equally, so that each parent assumed full and exclusive care of a subset of the brood. However, many females (45%) initiated a second brood and the male assumed care of the entire first brood at the time when his mate began incubating. The proportion of feeding trips to nestlings made by the male was not predictive of his subsequent effort in the care of fledglings. Exclusion of the fledgling care period in studies of parental investment may give a biased picture of overall investment on the part of both male and female parents.

scholarly journals Testing predictions of inclusive fitness theory in inbreeding relatives with biparental care

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1916) ◽  
pp. 20191933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Gow ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Danielle Dagenais ◽  
Rebecca J. Sardell ◽  
Scott Wilson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Mating System ◽  
Feeding Rate ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Feeding Rates ◽  
Extra Pair Paternity ◽  
Inclusive Fitness Theory ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Focal Male

Inclusive fitness theory predicts that parental care will vary with relatedness between potentially caring parents and offspring, potentially shaping mating system evolution. Systems with extra-pair paternity (EPP), and hence variable parent–brood relatedness, provide valuable opportunities to test this prediction. However, existing theoretical and empirical studies assume that a focal male is either an offspring's father with no inbreeding, or is completely unrelated. We highlight that this simple dichotomy does not hold given reproductive interactions among relatives, complicating the effect of EPP on parent–brood relatedness yet providing new opportunities to test inclusive fitness theory. Accordingly, we tested hierarchical hypotheses relating parental feeding rate to parent–brood relatedness, parent kinship and inbreeding, using song sparrows ( Melospiza melodia ) experiencing natural variation in relatedness. As predicted, male and female feeding rates increased with relatedness to a dependent brood, even controlling for brood size. Male feeding rate tended to decrease as paternity loss increased, and increased with increasing kinship and hence inbreeding between socially paired mates. We thereby demonstrate that variation in a key component of parental care concurs with subtle predictions from inclusive fitness theory. We additionally highlight that such effects can depend on the underlying social mating system, potentially generating status-specific costs of extra-pair reproduction.

Parental care and brood division in a songbird, the black redstart

Behaviour ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 142 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1495-1514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tudor I. Draganoiu ◽  
Laurent Nagle ◽  
Raphael Musseau ◽  
Michel Kreutzer
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Feeding Rates ◽  
Close Link ◽  
Brood Division ◽  
Black Redstart ◽  
Phoenicurus Ochruros ◽  
Brood Desertion

AbstractSexual conflict over parental care can be mediated through differences in male and female overall feeding rates, brood division or both. At present, it is not clear whether post-fledging brood division occurs due to sexual conflict over parental investment or is due to bi-parental cooperation, e.g. increase offspring fitness. We provide evidence suggesting that brood division in the black redstart, Phoenicurus ochruros is due to sexual conflict. Males and females had similar feeding contributions during the nestling stage, which is common for most passerine species. After fledging, each parent showed long-term feeding preferences for particular chicks within the brood. In most cases (74%; 17/23) both parents provided care but males tended to feed less fledglings than females did and in about a quarter of cases (26%; 6/23) females fed the whole brood by themselves. The relative amount of male to female post-fledging feedings showed a significant negative relationship with the proportion of fledglings cared for exclusively by the male. These results suggest (1) a close link between the amount of parental care and brood division; (2) sexual conflict can be mediated through brood division; (3) female redstarts appear to loose this conflict more often than male redstarts, with in the extreme cases males showing post-fledging brood desertion. A literature review shows brood division to occur in at least a dozen of songbird species but male black redstarts have the lowest relative post-fledging parental investment, expressed either as feeding rates or number of chicks in care.

Parental Care and Polygyny in the Chiffchaff Phylloscopus Collybita

Behaviour ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 133 (13-14) ◽  
pp. 1077-1094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Food Provisioning ◽  
Nestling Period

AbstractThe males of most bird species help to raise the young, and females may suffer costs from polygyny because of having to share the male parental care. In the chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) nests of monogamously and polygynously mated females had similar success in relation to the proportion of fledged young. Overall, male chiffchaffs provided little assistance to females during the nestling period, but they increased help when the young left the nest. Females who choose already-paired males (secondary females) incurred lower reproductive success, because they were unable to start a second brood after raising their first brood. Primary and monogamous females which received male help in the form of food provisioning during the fledgling period were more likely to attempt a second brood. This is the first study that reports associated costs to secondary females due to the lack of paternal aid after the young have fledged the nest. However, secondary females still can obtain compensatory benefits, as predicted by the polygyny threshold model, since most of them settled in good quality habitats, close to the primary females.

Increase of parental effort in experimentally enlarged broods of Pallid Swifts

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (8) ◽  
pp. 1387-1395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Cucco ◽  
Giorgio Malacarne
Keyword(s):  
Brood Size ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Cost Of Reproduction ◽  
Parental Effort ◽  
Feeding Rates ◽  
Video Cameras ◽  
Brooding Period ◽  
Daily Food ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The Cost

Variation in parental effort of Pallid Swifts (Apus pallidus) was investigated for 3 years in a colony in northwestern Italy. The masses of adults and of bolus loads brought to chicks were monitored by electronic balances inserted under nests, and feeding rates were monitored by video cameras. Fluctuations in daily food availability were measured with an insect-suction trap. Manipulation experiments on broods originally consisting of three chicks were performed to increase (four chicks) or reduce (two chicks) adult effort, with the aim of determining if parents tend to allocate food primarily to themselves or to their offspring, and if mass loss in adults results from reproductive stress or from adaptive programmed anorexia. With the enlargement of brood size, mean bolus mass remained constant, but the visitation rate increased significantly. Daily food abundance did not influence the amount of food allocated to chicks (neither time spent foraging nor the bolus mass changed), but positively influenced the mass of adults, which showed large daily variations. These results indicate that parents tend to invest constantly in offspring, at their own expense when food is scarce. Our data lend support to the cost of reproduction hypothesis instead of adaptive anorexia, since adults lose mass mainly in the brooding period, when demand is highest, and always regain mass when prey availability is greater.

Do social mating systems limit maternal immune investment in shorebirds?

2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-228
Author(s):  
D.B. Edwards ◽  
M. Haring ◽  
H.G. Gilchrist ◽  
A.I. Schulte-Hostedde
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Lysozyme Activity ◽  
Immunoglobulin Y ◽  
Energetic Costs ◽  
Female Role ◽  
Pace Of Life ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Multiple Matings

Across mating systems, females differ in the amount of resources they invest in offspring. For example, polyandrous females invest in acquiring multiple matings rather than providing parental care. We examined how the amount of maternal immune investment, measured as immunoglobulin Y and lysozyme activity in eggs, was influenced by female role across three social mating systems (polyandry, polygyny, and monogamy) in shorebirds. We predicted that polyandry should impose the greatest costs on the ability to provision eggs and monogamy, where females receive benefits from biparentality, the least. Contrary to our predictions, levels of maternally derived egg immune constituents were consistently high across measures in the polyandrous species and low in the monogamous species. Our results may support a link with pace-of-life where developmental costs are greater than the energetic costs of provisioning eggs, and (or) a role for sexual selection acting on maternal immune investment.

Parental care in the common eider (Somateria mollissima): factors affecting abandonment and adoption of young

1991 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1538-1545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan O. Bustnes ◽  
Kjell E. Erikstad
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Somateria Mollissima ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Lower Survival Rate ◽  
Duckling Survival ◽  
Energetic Stress ◽  
Lower Body Weight ◽  
Common Eiders ◽  
The Common ◽  
Individual Strategies

Parental care in common eiders (Somateria mollissima) was studied during three field seasons in northern Norway. Forty-two percent of the females were found to abandon their brood. Abandonment and tending of broods and crèches were not obligate individual strategies, but changed between years. Females abandoning their young laid smaller clutches and had a lower body weight at hatching than brood- and crèche-tending females, indicating that they were in poor body condition. This supports the hypothesis that abandoning the brood is a salvage strategy in which energetic stress limits females' ability to care for their young. Young of "abandoners" seemed to have a lower survival rate than young of "tenders," which suggests a reproductive cost of abandoning the young. Forty-seven percent of tagged ducklings were found with females other than their mother. Twenty-seven percent of the brood- and crèche-tending females lost young to other females, but never more than one duckling. Adoptions of foreign ducklings, above the normal brood size of four, did not lead to greater parental effort, and duckling survival was similar among broods and crèches of different sizes. This suggests that adoptions may be of neutral adaptive value. Two females often formed stable crèches, but duckling survival was not significantly different from that in broods and crèches with single females.

Factors affecting infestation by larvae of Phyllophaga spp. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in Costa Rica

1985 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. S. King
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Acid Soil ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
Phosphate Fertilizer ◽  
Common Species ◽  
Larval Survival ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Consequent Reduction ◽  
Third Instar Larvae

AbstractObservations were made on the behaviour of some Costa Rican species of Phyllophaga. Studies of oviposition and early larval survival under controlled conditions indicated that P. menetriesii (Blanchard) laid most eggs under a ground cover containing grasses and that the presence of living roots in the soil was important to the survival of the young larvae of the two most common species, P. menetriesii and P. vicina (Moser). At Turrialba, Costa Rica, the destruction of young maize plants by larvae of these two species and the consequent reduction in yield were significantly greater in land which was weedy or in close association with stands of old cassava plants, than where weeds had been effectively controlled and cassava was absent. Both plant loss and yields of maize were significantly correlated with larval densities. The best correlations were with numbers of second- and third-instar larvae sampled in July and with the total numbers of third-instar larvae sampled. Regression analyses established that 4·45 seedlings, or approximately 170 kg dry grain/ha, were lost per larva per square metre sampled during the seedling stage in July. An expression to calculate the economic threshold was determined. Significantly more larvae of P. vicina were found in maize growing on ridged than on unridged land, and where applications of lime and phosphate fertilizer had been made to an acid soil. The significance of weed control on infestation is discussed.

scholarly journals Brood Division and the Ontogeny of Caching Behaviour in the North Island robin (Petroica longipes)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lisabertha Clark
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Female Parent ◽  
Avian Species ◽  
The North ◽  
Mammalian Predators ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Brood Division ◽  
And Function

<p>The post-fledging period is an important, but understudied, stage of avian development. This is despite the fact that the parental care and behavioural development of young observed during this period contribute significantly toward offspring survival. A key factor that has contributed to the lack of research in this area has been the difficulty with which parents and offspring can be observed during this period.  The North Island robin (Petroica longipes) is a small insectivorous passerine native to New Zealand forests. As a result of the historic absence of mammalian predators, North Island robins lack pronounced anti-predator behaviours and are fearless towards humans. This makes them ideal subjects for behavioural studies in the wild because human presence does not alter their daily activities.  Using field observations, the present study examined parental care and the development of caching during the post-fledging period in wild North Island robins. Brood division is a form of preferential post-fledging care that is well documented among avian species in the northern hemisphere. In contrast, little is known about the incidence and function of brood division in avian species outside this region. Across two breeding seasons (2014-2015 and 2015-2016), feeding interactions between parents and offspring were observed during nestling and fledgling development to determine the timing of and factors influencing brood division in robins. Brood division occurred around the time young left the nest and was common amongst broods which fledged two or more young. The male parent typically cared for male and larger fledglings and the female parent for female and smaller fledglings. The results of this study match patterns observed in northern hemisphere species suggesting that brood division provides the same adaptive advantages to species regardless of geographical context.  Caching, the handling of food to preserve it for future consumption, is an important strategy which allows numerous avian species to deal with natural fluctuations in food supply. In recent decades, caching has become a widely-used paradigm for examining a range of cognitive processes in birds, such as social cognition and spatial memory. However, much is still unknown about how caching develops in young birds, especially in the wild. Over a 12-week period following fledging, the ontogeny of caching and cache retrieval was observed for 34 juvenile robins. Juveniles began caching shortly after achieving foraging independency (approximately 5 weeks after fledging) and their caching rates increased gradually with age. Retrieval of caches began spontaneously as soon as they had begun to cache and retrieval rates remained constant throughout development. Results suggest that caching behaviour in North Island robins is likely to be innate, but that age and experience have an important role in the development of adult caching behaviours.  The two studies described in this dissertation examine behaviours that have either been previously difficult to document in the wild or have not been documented in this species. Overall, the results highlight the behavioural similarities between the North Island robin and other avian species exhibiting brood division and caching. Additionally, they also demonstrate the suitability of the North Island robin for future behavioural research given the ease with which these birds can be observed in the wild.</p>

scholarly journals DIURNAL VARIATIONS IN PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PLANT FACTORS AFFECTING FEEDING OF HOMALODISCA COAGULATA, A VECTOR OF DISEASES INDUCED BY XYLELLA FASTIDIOSA.

HortScience ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 1073e-1073
Author(s):  
Peter C. Andersen ◽  
Brent V. Brodbeck ◽  
R. F. Mizell
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Organic Acid ◽  
Prunus Persica ◽  
Xylella Fastidiosa ◽  
Diurnal Variations ◽  
Feeding Rates ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Xylem Fluid ◽  
Homalodisca Coagulata ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Homalodisca coagulata (Say), a xylem-fluid feeding leafhopper, vectors diseases induced by the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa such as phony peach disease and Pierce's disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate plant factors that influence feeding. H. coagulata were confined to stems of peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] and crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica L.). Osmolarity, amino acid and organic acid concentrations of xylem fluid were maximum during the morning for peach and declined thereafter; xylem fluid chemistry of crape myrtle followed a less distinct trend. Irrigated plants had higher concentrations of organic constituents and feeding rates were higher on these plants. Feeding rates and xylem fluid tensions, were maximum during midday; feeding did not occur at night. In separate experiments feeding rates were greatly reduced at xylem tensions >1.5 MPa.

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