Ecology of two Pittas (<i>Pitta soror</i> and <i>Pitta nympha</i>) in limestone forests of South China

Jiang, Aiwu; Ye, Gang; Pagani‐Núñez, Emilio; Jiang, Demeng

doi:10.1080/00222933.2017.1355490

Cited by 4 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Regardless, a visit of a parent with multiple prey items is important for the growth of nestlings, suggesting that breeding territories providing a high abundance of earthworms are better for the provisioning of nestlings. This is especially clear considering that in both the southern and the northern parts of the breeding range earthworms comprise above 70% (usually 80-90%) of the items in the diet of the Fairy Pitta's nestlings [18][19][20] (Table 1), with nearly 100% of diet items consisting of earthworms for the young nestlings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Afdm)]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3) Finally, we used calculations based on transects from Chinese forests 19 . We chose 2 transects in Nonggang and 3 transects from Mulun areas in Table 1 in Jiang et al 19 because only those transects contained Fairy Pittas. Each transect was 200 m wide and their lengths were 2.3 km, 1.9 km and 4.6 km, 4.7 km, 5.7 km for Nonggang and Mulun respectively, and the number of individuals detected was 2, 2 and 4, 6, 2 for Nonggang and Mulun respectively 19 .…”

Section: Afdm)]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We chose 2 transects in Nonggang and 3 transects from Mulun areas in Table 1 in Jiang et al 19 because only those transects contained Fairy Pittas. Each transect was 200 m wide and their lengths were 2.3 km, 1.9 km and 4.6 km, 4.7 km, 5.7 km for Nonggang and Mulun respectively, and the number of individuals detected was 2, 2 and 4, 6, 2 for Nonggang and Mulun respectively 19 . Separately for each transect, we calculated the estimated territory area (in songbirds this usually corresponds to the home range) of a pair of Fairy Pittas according to the formulas: Territory area estimate 1 = surface area of the transect / (nr of individuals recorded / 2) Territory area estimate 2 = surface area of the transect / (nr of individuals recorded)…”

Section: Afdm)]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1B). Two published studies of observations at nine nests provided some basic data on parental care and nestlings' diet for the southern part of the breeding range 18,19 (Taiwan and SE China; nr 1, 2 in Fig. 1B), while the information for the northern part of the breeding range comes from only two nests studied on Jeju Island 20 (nr 3 in Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation of avian diet specialists: lessons from brood provisioning ecology of the endangered vermivore, the Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha)

Park¹,

Ha²,

Jabłoński

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Information on the diet of endangered species is crucial in conservation, especially for diet specialists. The Fairy Pitta, Pitta nympha, is classified as “vulnerable species” by IUCN. In a field-based study on the nestlings’ diet and parental care, combined with the existing literature, we confirm pitta’s dietary specialization as vermivory and report the effect of rain on the proportion and size of earthworms in the nestlings’ diet. We use the quantitative results, along with the literature on earthworm densities, to speculate that the habitat’s surface area required to supply a pair of the Fairy Pitta with earthworms for the whole breeding event approximately matches the territory (home range) size extracted from the published censuses of the Fairy Pitta. This match highlights the importance of earthworms for the population ecology of the Fairy Pitta. Finally, based on the comparison of earthworm densities in natural and anthropogenic habitats, we hypothesize that spatial mosaic of patches of natural and anthropogenic habitats, with patch sizes based on the Fairy Pitta’s territory size, may mitigate the negative effects of the conversion of natural habitats to anthropogenic habitats on pitta’s population.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Afdm)]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Afdm)]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Afdm)]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation of avian diet specialists: lessons from brood provisioning ecology of the endangered vermivore, the Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha)

Park¹,

Ha²,

Jabłoński

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Sundering of earthworms by the Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha): an unexplored strategy of prey preparation for brood provisioning by avian vermivores

Park

Kim

et al. 2021

J Ornithol

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Ecological specialists utilize a restricted range of resources and have evolved adaptations to exploit their specialized resources. For example, avian insectivores that feed nestlings with grasshoppers, beetles, or moths perform insect prey preparation before feeding nestlings so that the nestlings are able to swallow the prey. This behavior is generally not expected for soft prey such as earthworms. However, an overview of photographic evidence available online suggested that earthworms are sundered by parents before bringing the prey to the nestlings in a range of species from several families of vermivores worldwide. Reports on the provisioning of nestlings by the vermivores are relatively scant and no report on earthworm sundering has been published. We studied earthworm sundering performed by parents provisioning their broods at four nests of the Fairy Pitta in Korea. The birds sundered earthworms more often when nestlings were smaller and when the earthworm was longer. This is the first quantitative description of earthworm sundering in avian vermivores. We present and evaluate four hypotheses for the function of sundering: provisioning of small nestlings, decreased detectability, hunting multiple prey, and transport of prey. Among these, provisioning of small nestlings seems the most feasible explanation of sundering by the Fairy Pitta as sundering the earthworm allows parents to efficiently provision the younger/smaller nestlings who would have difficulties swallowing unsundered earthworms. This specialized prey preparation technique of vermivores suggests a tight adaptive match between their parental behaviors and their diet (vermivory).

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Does bird photography affect nest predation and feeding frequency?

et al. 2022

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Ecology of two Pittas (Pitta soror and Pitta nympha) in limestone forests of South China

Cited by 4 publications

References 14 publications

Conservation of avian diet specialists: lessons from brood provisioning ecology of the endangered vermivore, the Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha)

Conservation of avian diet specialists: lessons from brood provisioning ecology of the endangered vermivore, the Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha)

Sundering of earthworms by the Fairy Pitta (Pitta nympha): an unexplored strategy of prey preparation for brood provisioning by avian vermivores

Does bird photography affect nest predation and feeding frequency?

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