Risk-taking behavior of bull-headed shrikes that recently colonized islands

Individuals which have invaded urbanized environments are reported to engage in riskier behaviors, possibly influenced by the scarcity of predators in urbanized areas. Here, we studied the risk-taking behavior of birds which had invaded a new natural environment, rather than an artificial urban environment, using recently established populations of the bull-headed shrike Lanius bucephalus, which naturally colonized three subtropical islands in Japan. We compared flight initiation distance (FID), the distance at which an individual approached by a human initiates flight, between the islands and the temperate mainland. FID was longer for the insular shrikes compared with the mainland shrikes after controlling for other factors, indicating that the individuals which had invaded a new natural environment had a lower propensity for risk-taking. A possible explanation for these results is that low risk-taking behavior might be adaptive on the islands due to predation by the black rat Rattus rattus, an unfamiliar predator not found in shrike habitats on the temperate mainland. Further studies are needed to examine the nest predation rate, predator species, and nest site selection of these insular shrike populations.

Arboreal nesting and utilization of open-cup bird nests by introduced Ship Rats Rattus rattus on an oceanic island

SummaryThe introduction of exotic rats Rattus spp. is one of the most important factors contributing to the reduction in avian diversity and extinctions on oceanic islands. However, little is known about factors other than predation, which are associated with the loss of island biodiversity. We report that introduced Ship Rats Rattus rattus constructed arboreal dome-shaped nests and secondarily used open-cup nests of the Bull-headed Shrike Lanius bucephalus for roosting or rearing young in trees within hedgerows along sugarcane fields of Minami-daito Island (northwest Pacific). We found that temporal nest utilization by Ship Rats forced Bull-headed Shrikes to abandon their nests before egg-laying. We suggest that kleptoparasitism applies to the interaction between Bull-headed Shrikes and Ship Rats, which usurp shrike nests during their breeding period. It is necessary to consider the potential effects of introduced Ship Rats on insular avian communities not only through predation but also through interspecific interaction over nest-sites.