Food as a Limit on Breeding Birds: A Life-History Perspective

Martin, Thomas E.

doi:10.1146/annurev.es.18.110187.002321

Cited by 1,207 publications

(449 citation statements)

References 158 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

424

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It is not known whether the cause of this decline is related to recent temperature increases. However, if birds such as the Bay-breasted Warbler are breeding near the geographical limit of their food resources, small declines in the favorable climate conditions could result in relatively large decreases in reproduction or survival (Martin 1987 The relationship between local climate conditions and the distribution of forest birds is further supported by our results that suggest that the number of long-distance migrants, shortdistance migrants, and residents are significantly influenced by spring temperature. All short-distance migrants in our bird community arrive early in the spring.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

The Influence of Summer Climate on Avian Community Composition in the Eastern Boreal Forest of Canada

DesGranges¹,

LeBlanc²

2012

ACE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT. Understanding the relative influence of environmental variables, especially climate, in driving variation in species diversity is becoming increasingly important for the conservation of biodiversity. The objective of this study was to determine to what extent climate can explain the structure and diversity of forest bird communities by sampling bird abundance in homogenous mature spruce stands in the boreal forest of the Québec-Labrador peninsula using variance partitioning techniques. We also quantified the relationship among two climatic gradients, summer temperature and precipitation, and bird species richness, migratory strategy, and spring arrival phenology. For the bird community, climate factors appear to be most important in explaining species distribution and abundance because nearly 15% of the variation in the distribution of the 44 breeding birds selected for the analysis can be explained by climate. The vegetation variables we selected were responsible for a much smaller amount of the explained variation (4%). Breeding season temperature seems to be more important than precipitation in driving variation in bird species diversity at the scale of our analysis. Partial correlation analysis indicated that bird species richness distribution was determined by the temperature gradient, because the number of species increased with increasing breeding season temperature. Similar results were observed between breeding season temperature and the number of residents, shortdistance and long-distance migrants, and early and late spring migrants. Our results suggest that the northern and southern range boundaries of species are not equally sensitive to the temperature gradient across the region.RÉSUMÉ. La compréhension du rôle de l'influence relative des variables environnementales -particulièrement le climat -, sur la variation de la diversité des espèces revêt une importance grandissante pour la conservation de la biodiversité. L'objectif de cette étude était de déterminer à quel point le climat peut expliquer la structure et la diversité des communautés d'oiseaux forestiers, à partir d'un échantillonnage de l'abondance des oiseaux dans des peuplements d'épinettes matures et homogènes de la péninsule Québec-Labrador au moyen de techniques de partitionnement de la variance. Nous avons également mesuré la relation de deux gradients climatiques -la température estivale et les précipitations -en fonction de la richesse en espèces, de la stratégie migratoire et de la phénologie de l'arrivée printanière des oiseaux. Pour ce qui est de la communauté aviaire, les facteurs climatiques semblent le mieux expliquer la répartition et l'abondance des oiseaux, parce que près de 15 % de la variation de la répartition de 44 espèces nicheuses sélectionnées pour l'analyse est expliquée par le climat. En revanche, les variables de végétation que nous avons choisies n'ont expliqué que 4 % de la variation. Les températures durant la saison de reproduction semblent entrainer davantage de variation que les précipitations sur l...

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

The Influence of Summer Climate on Avian Community Composition in the Eastern Boreal Forest of Canada

DesGranges¹,

LeBlanc²

2012

ACE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are several alternative explanations for our finding that the Tucuman Parrot has the second largest clutch-size among Amazona parrots. Firstly, the health (or nutritional state) of female birds, which is strongly related to availability of food, might affect both the number and quality of the eggs laid (Lack 1954;Martin 1987); secondly, birds with higher rates of nesting success may be expected to lay larger clutches (Skutch 1985); thirdly, clutch-size is inversely related to population density (Ricklefs 1980), which, in the case of nesting Tucuman Parrots, may be low; and lastly, the large clutch-size may be evidence of a life-history trade-off in which increased productivity is compensated for by lower survival of juveniles or adults (Bears et al 2009).…”

Section: Reproductive Outputmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nesting success and productivity of Tucuman Parrots(Amazona tucumana)in high-altitude forests of Argentina: do they differ from lowlandAmazonaparrots?

Rivera

Politi

Bucher

et al. 2014

Emu - Austral Ornithology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Most of our knowledge of reproduction of wild parrots in the Neotropics comes from studies of tropical lowland species, with few studies addressing species of high-altitude forests. We studied the reproductive biology of Tucuman Parrots (Amazona tucumana) in north-western Argentina between 2004 and 2009. We obtained data on reproductive output for 86 nests and on causes of mortality for 94 nests. Mean clutch-size per nesting attempt was 3.6 eggs AE 1.0 (s.d.). Hatching success (proportion of eggs laid that hatch) was 0.77 AE 0.17. Fledging success (proportion of nestlings that fledge) was 0.83 AE 0.13. The overall breeding success (mean number of fledglings per laying female per year) was 2.3 AE 0.8. Overall finite nesting success (daily survival rate to the power of the nesting length) was 0.53 AE 0.27, and chick finite nesting success rate was 0.74 AE 0.22. We did not find differences in reproductive rate between Tucuman Parrots and other species of Amazona parrot from lowland habitats. Productivity and nesting success of Tucuman Parrots had high values in some years and low values in others. This was probably related to fruiting events of Podocarpus parlatorei -a critical food item. The main causes of nesting failure were predation (16%) and abandonment (12%). Our results suggest that for several species of Amazona in lowland habitats, predation and poaching may be the main limiting factors whereas climatic factors and food availability may contribute most to nesting failure at higher altitudes.

show abstract

“…Although little is known about the negative effects of feeding birds on their ecosystems, the fundamental influence of food supply on the lives of animals has long been appreciated, largely through many carefully conducted supplementary feeding experiments (see Martin 1987;Robb et al 2008). These studies have explored, for example, the influence of the timing, quantity and quality of food provisioning on hatching and laying dates, clutchsize, and survival of chicks and fledglings (Boutin 1990;Newton 1998).…”

Section: Feeding Really Does Change Thingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An appetite for connection: why we need to understand the effect and value of feeding wild birds

Jones

2011

Emu - Austral Ornithology

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Food as a Limit on Breeding Birds: A Life-History Perspective

Cited by 1,207 publications

References 158 publications

The Influence of Summer Climate on Avian Community Composition in the Eastern Boreal Forest of Canada

The Influence of Summer Climate on Avian Community Composition in the Eastern Boreal Forest of Canada

Nesting success and productivity of Tucuman Parrots(Amazona tucumana)in high-altitude forests of Argentina: do they differ from lowlandAmazonaparrots?

An appetite for connection: why we need to understand the effect and value of feeding wild birds

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About