Effects of human-related disturbance on breeding success of urban and non-urban blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Glądalski, Michał; Bańbura, Mirosława; Kaliński, Adam; Markowski, Marcin; Skwarska, Joanna; Wawrzyniak, Jarosław; Zieliński, Piotr; Cyżewska, Iwona; Mańkowska, D.; Bańbura, Jerzy

doi:10.1007/s11252-016-0543-3

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…It can depend on season and weather conditions (sunny vs. rainy days; Gladalski et al, 2016), days of the week (weekends vs. working days; Remacha et al, 2016) or hours of the day (morning peak hour vs. afternoon). It is thus important that such variability is taken into account when quantifying human presence and its possible disturbance to wildlife.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humans and Tits in the City: Quantifying the Effects of Human Presence on Great Tit and Blue Tit Reproductive Trait Variation

et al. 2017

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Environmental conditions are key drivers of life-history evolution, and the urban environment is an extreme form of land-use readily inhabited by avian wildlife, whose life-history variation in such altered environment is still poorly understood. Recently, the study of environmental variables associated with urban living-which include shifts in temperature, light, noise or food availability-has attracted increased attention. Another environmental axis that sets the urban space at odds relative to natural habitats is high human abundance, yet very little is known about its effect on avian fitness. We developed a protocol to quantify human presence by performing repeated counts of humans on the ground within a 15 m radius of nestboxes monitored in two centrally-located study areas of a European capital city. In parallel, a GIS-based approach was used to infer nestbox distance to the nearest path and road. Multiple counts of human presence around each nestbox yielded moderate to high repeatabilities (0.6 ≤ r ≤ 0.8) while requiring considerable resources time-and people-wise. In contrast, GIS-based estimates of nestbox distance to paths and roads were time efficient and generated highly repeatable results. The effects of (i) human presence around each nestbox, (ii) nestbox distance to the nearest path and (iii) nestbox distance to the nearest road were tested on reproductive traits of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus and great tits Parus major breeding in two urban sites. Human presence did not influence blue tit or great tit life-history traits and reproductive success, suggesting reproductive habituation to humans in an urban landscape. In contrast, nestbox distance to roads shortened incubation time in great tits while nestbox distance to paths increased incubation time in blue tits. Moreover, blue tit offspring 2 weeks after hatching were lighter closer to roads. Our study confirms the reliability of a field protocol capturing human presence around multiple fixed locations that can be easily implemented in either urban or rural landscapes. At the same time, it appears that when applied to two urban sites where habituation to humans might have occurred, it is infrastructural networks rather than human presence per se that played a greater role in tit reproductive trait variation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humans and Tits in the City: Quantifying the Effects of Human Presence on Great Tit and Blue Tit Reproductive Trait Variation

et al. 2017

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“…The urban parkland area (80 ha) consists of the zoological garden (16 ha) and the botanical garden (64 ha). This area is one of the biggest recreation and entertainment areas in Łódź (Glądalski et al 2016b). The vegetation of the parkland area consists of a diverse mix of tree species including exotic tree species (Marciniak et al 2007).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hatching delays in great tits and blue tits in response to an extreme cold spell: a long-term study

et al. 2018

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Variation in ambient temperature affects various life stages of organisms. It has been suggested that climate change not only implies higher global temperatures but also more unpredictable weather and more frequent extreme weather events. Temperature has a major influence on the optimal laying-incubation-hatching dates of insectivorous passerines, because it poses energetic constraints and affects the timing of food abundance. We have been studying breeding characteristics of great tits Parus major and blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus in two areas, an urban parkland and a deciduous forest, around the city of Łódź since 2002. During the egg-laying period in 2017, both tit species at both study areas faced an unusual cold spell as reflected by a sudden decrease in the mean ambient temperature to ca. 2–3 °C for about 5 days, which caused mean hatching delays of up to 6 days. Since flexibility of behavior plays a major role in adjusting to unpredictable weather conditions, examining its limits may be an important goal for future research.

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“…The nestboxes were distributed in a grid, keeping a distance of about 50 m between them. Mean density of nestboxes was similar in both study sites, 2.2–2.3 per 1 ha [ 27 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A consistent long-lasting pattern of spatial variation in egg size and shape in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus)

et al. 2018

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BackgroundInterspecies variation in avian egg shape and size is understandable in terms of adaptation, allometry and phylogeny. Within-species variation in egg properties influences offspring fitness and can be explained by differences in allocation of resources into reproductive components of life history in mulidimensionally variable environments. Egg size is inherently traded-off with clutch size, which may also be true of egg shape in some cases. We investigated long-term variation in egg shape and size between two geographically close populations of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus in relation to clutch size and habitat differences.ResultsThe main finding is that there exists a persistent long-lasting pattern of spatial variation of egg size and shape between the two study populations of blue tits, 10 km apart, controlling for clutch size. Eggs in the urban park site were on average larger in volume and less spherical in shape than eggs in the forest site over 12 years of this study. Egg sizes were negatively associated with clutch sizes. Egg shape was not correlated with clutch size.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the pattern of variation in egg size and shape results from different trophic richness of the breeding habitats of the study populations, demanding different allocation of resources and, especially, from the contrasting difference in the availability of calcium.

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Effects of human-related disturbance on breeding success of urban and non-urban blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Cited by 31 publications

References 49 publications

Humans and Tits in the City: Quantifying the Effects of Human Presence on Great Tit and Blue Tit Reproductive Trait Variation

Humans and Tits in the City: Quantifying the Effects of Human Presence on Great Tit and Blue Tit Reproductive Trait Variation

Hatching delays in great tits and blue tits in response to an extreme cold spell: a long-term study

A consistent long-lasting pattern of spatial variation in egg size and shape in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus)

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