“The tale of the three little tits”: Different nest building solutions under the same environmental pressures

Alambiaga, Iván; Álvarez, Elena; Diez‐Méndez, David; Verdejo, José; Barba, Emilio

doi:10.1177/1758155920943116

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus and Coal Tits Periparus ater also breed in the nestboxes (Alambiaga et al . 2020). The study area of Quintos (39°43'48"N, 3°58'48"W, 900 m asl) is part of the Quintos de Mora National Wildlife Reserve in Central Spain.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of ambient temperature and clutch size on incubation behaviour onset in a female‐only incubator songbird

Diez‐Méndez¹,

Sanz²,

Barba

2021

Ibis

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Ambient temperature is assumed to be the major cue used by passerines to synchronize their laying and hatching dates to the expected peak of prey availability. While laying eggs, females are still able to fine‐tune their hatching date following increasing or decreasing patterns of ambient temperature, mostly via changes in incubation onset. The onset of incubation behaviour in relation to the laying sequence could have later consequences for the duration of the incubation period and the extent of hatching asynchrony. Clutch size is also known to affect incubation patterns and might therefore condition potential responses to changing temperatures. In this study we assessed the association of ambient temperature and clutch size with the onset of four different incubation behaviours: partial and full nocturnal incubation, and partial and full diurnal incubation. We also evaluated how the onset and duration of each incubation behaviour might predict the duration of diurnal full incubation and the extent of hatching asynchrony. To achieve our aims, we monitored incubation behaviour using temperature data loggers during the egg‐laying period in three Mediterranean Great Tit Parus major populations in three consecutive years. Our results showed that increasing temperatures were related to an advance of diurnal partial incubation, but not its duration or the onset of full incubation behaviour. We did not find any effect of ambient temperatures on nocturnal incubation. However, females lengthened nocturnal partial incubation and delayed the onset of nocturnal full and diurnal partial incubation when laying larger clutches. Longer diurnal incubation before clutch completion was associated with greater hatching asynchrony. Moreover, longer diurnal partial incubation shortened the duration of the full incubation period. In conclusion, increasing ambient temperatures during the egg‐laying period advanced diurnal partial incubation, indirectly shortening the full incubation period and increasing hatching asynchrony.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of ambient temperature and clutch size on incubation behaviour onset in a female‐only incubator songbird

Diez‐Méndez¹,

Sanz²,

Barba

2021

Ibis

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“…large bird feathers brought by a male; delicate, movable lining-like cover for eggs or fresh, aromatic plants; Sanz & García-Navas 2011;Reynolds et al 2019;Pires et al 2020;Glądalski et al 2020a). Different studies show that nest composition in Great Tits Parus major and Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus is affected by a set of factors, including amounts of rainfall, spring temperatures, latitude, parents and territory quality, availability of construction materials or risk of predation (Mainwaring et al 2012(Mainwaring et al , 2014Heenan 2013;Kaliński et al 2014;Reynolds et al 2016;Biddle et al 2018;Deeming et al 2019;Alambiaga et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in use of bryophyte species in tit nests between two contrasting habitats: an urban park and a forest

Glądalski

Wolski

Bańbura

et al. 2021

The European Zoological Journal

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A considerable number of avian species tend to use bryophytes as nest construction material, but the selectivity of birds in their bryophyte use in nest construction in relation to the availability of particular mosses in individual territories remains largely unexplored. We studied the bryophyte composition of nests in two passerine species: the Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus and the Great Tit Parus major in two floristically and structurally contrasting study areas (a mature deciduous forest and an urban parkland). We also studied territories within a radius of 10 m from each occupied nest box, listing all bryophyte species and checking to what extent the moss composition of the nest reflected what was available in the surrounding of the nest box. Both tit species appeared to be selective. The tits used a total of 31 bryophyte species in their nests (27 found in Blue Tits and 19 in Great Tits), whereas 25 additional bryophyte species were found around (10 m radius) the studied nests, but not in the nests. The number of bryophyte species found in individual nests varied in the urban parkland between 1 and 6 and in the forest between 1 and 11. The average number of bryophytes in the nest ranged from 2.31 in Great Tit from the urban parkland to 3.52 in Blue Tit in the urban parkland. Only a few species were used in a higher proportion than 5% of the volume within a single nest and, considering only these most abundant bryophyte species, the mean number ranged from 1.28 in Great Tits in the forest to 1.57 in Blue Tits in the urban parkland. Our study also showed that, in general, the bryophyte species composition of the nests seems to be affected by the site (the urban park vs the forest) rather than the parid species (Blue Tit vs Great Tit).

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“…Pina (40.02°N, 0.63°W, 1200 m a.s.l.) is a mountain area containing a mixed forest dominated by maritime pines Pinus pinaster with Portuguese oaks scattered within (Alambiaga et al 2020). Only first clutches produced during three consecutive years (2015)(2016)(2017) were included in this study.…”

Section: Study Areas and General Field Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deconstructing incubation behaviour in response to ambient temperature over different timescales

Diez‐Méndez

Cooper

Sanz

et al. 2021

Journal of Avian Biology

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Avian embryos need a stable thermal environment to develop optimally, while incubating females need to allocate time to self‐maintenance off the nest. In species with female‐only incubation, eggs are exposed to ambient temperatures that usually cool them down during female absences. The lower the ambient temperature the sooner females should return to re‐warm the eggs. When incubation constraints ease at increasing ambient temperatures, females respond by increasing either incubation effort or self‐maintenance time. These responses are population‐dependent even within the same species; but it is uncertain whether they are caused by local environmental conditions or they are an artefact from limited datasets, different methodological approaches or the timescale over which incubation behaviour is measured. In this study, we collected incubation data from three Mediterranean great tit Parus major populations during three consecutive years. We measured the duration of each off‐ and on‐bout event, used these variables to compute nest attentiveness at three different timescales (full incubation, daily and hourly periods) and assessed the impact of ambient temperature on bout duration and nest attentiveness. We found that females maximized on‐bout duration at different local temperatures, ranging from 10 to 20°C; but lengthened off‐bouts linearly across a range of 0–38°C in all three populations. These local differences translated into opposite linear nest attentiveness patterns at the full incubation scale: Females increased either incubation effort, longest on‐bouts between 15 and 20°C or self‐maintenance time, longest on‐bouts at 10°C. It was at daily and hourly periods when we detected non‐linear nest attentiveness patterns, as expected from on‐bout duration, peaking at different local ambient temperatures. Females first increased incubation effort up to a certain temperature value and then increased self‐maintenance time at the highest ambient temperatures. Further research is needed to understand which factors are behind the turning points from one behaviour to the other.

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“The tale of the three little tits”: Different nest building solutions under the same environmental pressures

Cited by 14 publications

References 49 publications

Impacts of ambient temperature and clutch size on incubation behaviour onset in a female‐only incubator songbird

Impacts of ambient temperature and clutch size on incubation behaviour onset in a female‐only incubator songbird

Differences in use of bryophyte species in tit nests between two contrasting habitats: an urban park and a forest

Deconstructing incubation behaviour in response to ambient temperature over different timescales

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