Reproduction is affected by individual breeding experience but not pair longevity in a socially monogamous bird

Pitera, Angela M.; Branch, Carrie L.; Sonnenberg, Benjamin R.; Benedict, Lauren M.; Kozlovsky, Dovid Y.; Pravosudov, Vladimir V.

doi:10.1007/s00265-021-03042-z

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This implies that individual quality can vary over time. In fact, experimented birds tend to have a better reproductive success than first-year breeders [8,11,12], and the maturation hypothesis [13] supports the suggesting that this may be due to improvements in some skills, such as foraging ability [12], better timing of reproduction [14,15], or the increasing efficiency of the endocrine system (i.e., increase in prolactin levels) [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Does the Urban Environment Act as a Filter on the Individual Quality of Birds?

Saulnier

Bleu

Lemonnier

et al. 2022

Birds

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Phenotypic divergences of birds are common between urban and natural habitats and can result from different selective pressures between habitats or maladaptation to the city. No uniform patterns were observed, especially concerning markers of bird health, such as, for example, telomere length. Telomeres are involved in maintaining genome integrity and naturally shorten with age, but environmental stressors can accelerate their attrition. Thus, telomere length can be an indicator of individual quality. Some studies showed that urban breeders had longer telomeres than forest individuals. Two hypotheses can explain this result: (1) urban breeders are younger than forests breeders, and (2) cities act as a filter on individuals and only high-quality birds can successfully reproduce. In this context, we compared the age category (molting pattern) and morphological and physiological characteristics of urban and forest Great Tits before and during breeding. No differences in age or body condition were observed. However, urban breeders were smaller and had shorter telomeres than birds captured in winter. Urban birds had longer telomeres than forest birds, only in winter. These results highlight that urban habitats potentially favor smaller birds. However, the decrease in telomere length between winter and reproduction only in the city suggest a higher cost of reproduction in the city compared to the forest.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Does the Urban Environment Act as a Filter on the Individual Quality of Birds?

Saulnier

Bleu

Lemonnier

et al. 2022

Birds

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“…We only included data from initial nests, leaving out renests within a season, as these attempts are very infrequent and often unsuccessful in this system. We modeled each breeding variable separately for our high and low elevation sites due to previously reported major differences in breeding performance between elevations in this population which were not the main focus of this particular study (Kozlovsky Pitera et al 2021). Analyzing elevations separately allowed us to test whether supplementary food had an effect on reproduction within each elevation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mountain chickadees are secondary cavity nesting birds that readily use human-made nest boxes (McCallum et al 2020). Nest boxes were monitored for the onset of nest building, first egg date, onset of incubation, and hatch date on a weekly to bi-weekly basis (Kozlovsky et al 2018, Pitera et al 2021. After the onset of incubation was detected, nests were targeted for monitoring based on expected incubation duration to limit disturbance and allow for precise detection of hatch dates.…”

Section: Breedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After nestlings hatched, any unbanded parents were captured and banded between 8-and 12-days post-hatch. Nestlings were counted, banded, and weighed using an electronic scale at 16 days post-hatch (Kozlovsky et al 2018, Pitera et al 2021). We assigned parental breeding pairs to four categories depending on their visitation to feeders in the winter prior to each breeding attempt: pairs in which both individuals visited feeders, pairs in which only one individual visited feeders (male or female), and pairs in which neither individual visited feeders.…”

Section: Breedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These qualities make for a highly unique opportunity to observe the impacts of passive feeding isolated from potential influences of backyard or urban environments present in similar studies. Mountain Chickadees are highly resident and individuals remain in the same area throughout the year, allowing us to measure the reproductive performance of many of the same individuals across multiple years (Kozlovsky et al 2018, Pitera et al 2021. We use radio frequency identification (RFID) equipped feeders to track feeder visits and the vast majority of the chickadees in the study area are banded with unique passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags (Croston et al 2016, Tello-Ramos et al 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Correction: Long-term winter food supplementation shows no significant impact on reproductive performance in Mountain Chickadees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

2023

Ornithology

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Supplemental feeding of wild animal populations is popular across many areas of the world and has long been considered beneficial, especially to avian taxa. Over 4 billion dollars are spent by hobby bird feeders in the United States each year alone. However, there is mixed evidence whether wildlife feeding is beneficial, including when it is implemented as a conservation management tool, a targeted experimental design, or an avocation. Much of the current evidence suggests that providing supplemental food is advantageous to the reproductive output and general survival of focal taxa. However, many of these studies are limited in scope and duration, leaving possible negative impacts unaddressed. This is particularly true regarding passive backyard feeding, which describes the majority of supplemental feeding, including the immense effort of millions of public enthusiasts. Here we show that winter supplemental feeding prior to reproduction had no significant impact on a range of reproductive parameters in a resident, montane passerine species, the Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli). This population resides in an intact natural environment with no exposure to supplemental food beyond our experimental treatments, and individual birds were tracked across six years using radio frequency identification technology. Our results add to the growing evidence that supplemental feeding alone, isolated from the effects of urban environments, may have little to no impact on the population dynamics of some avian taxa.

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High pair fidelity despite sex differences in the duration of parental care in a long-lived migratory bird

Kloskowski

2022

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Reproduction is affected by individual breeding experience but not pair longevity in a socially monogamous bird

Cited by 17 publications

References 32 publications

Does the Urban Environment Act as a Filter on the Individual Quality of Birds?

Does the Urban Environment Act as a Filter on the Individual Quality of Birds?

Correction: Long-term winter food supplementation shows no significant impact on reproductive performance in Mountain Chickadees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

High pair fidelity despite sex differences in the duration of parental care in a long-lived migratory bird

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