Variation in Great Tit Nest Mass and Composition and Its Breeding Consequences: A Comparative Study in four Mediterranean Habitats

Abstract

Bird nests are structures whose properties affect breeding performance. Thus, the vast majority of bird species build their own characteristic nests, selecting appropriate materials to do so. However, in habitats where the availability of "ideal" materials is low, some ability to use alternative ones would be necessary, even at the cost of having breeding success reduced. The Great Tit (Parus major) breeds under widely different environmental conditions. Its nests are althought to be composed mainly of moss, although very few studies have quantified nest composition. Our target here was describing Great Tit nest mass and composition in four different Mediterranean habitats, and exploring their fitness consequences. We recorded the basic breeding parameters, collected nests after fledging, and decomposed a sample of them, in four eastern Spanish populations: Pina (pines and oaks), Mariola (pines), Font Roja (holm oaks), and Sagunto (orange trees). Nests were heavier in Sagunto and Mariola and lighter in Font Roja, and those from Sagunto had the lowest amount of moss. Clutch size decreased as moss mass increased in the four sites. In Sagunto, hatching success increased as moss mass increased. In all habitats, nestling condition was lower when the amount of sticks and feathers was higher. We conclude that Great Tit nest mass and composition varies considerably between habitats, and the amount of different materials could affect different breeding parameters.

Use of anthropogenic material affects bird nest arthropod community structure: influence of urbanisation, and consequences for ectoparasites and fledging success

“…In addition to finding a broad decline in reproductive output associated with urbanisation, as found elsewhere (Chace and Walsh 2006;Chamberlain et al 2009), we also similarly found heavier nests to be linked with higher reproductive output. This concurs with a number of previous nest box studies, though not all (Lambrechts et al 2016b), and may be linked to adult quality (Alvarez et al 2013;Gladalski et al 2016;Lambrechts et al 2016a). Such differences in turn may be linked to differences in nesting behaviour and reproductive output between these species, as Blue Tits typically build proportionally heavier nests and have a higher average reproductive output per breeding attempt than the larger Great Tit (Lambrechts et al 2014(Lambrechts et al , 2015Gladalski et al 2016).…”

Morphology and biomechanics of the nests of the Common BlackbirdTurdus merula

“…Whilst we know in general terms what nests are constructed of (Hansell 2000, Ferguson-Lees et al 2011 there are relatively few reports that quantify the materials used (Rohwer & Law 2010, Britt & Deeming 2011, Álvarez et al 2013, Mainwaring et al 2014. Detailed nest construction behaviour is rarely described, but see Skutch (1976), Collias & Collias (1984) and Hansell (2000), but where this is the case, the materials used seem to have been chosen with care and the method of construction can be quite precise (Hansell 2000, Bailey et al 2014.…”

Birds use structural properties when selecting materials for different parts of their nests

“…Birds select materials during nest construction for a variety of reasons (Deeming and Mainwaring 2015), including sexual signalling (Dubiec et al 2013;Tomás et al 2013), defence from parasites or pathogens (Dubiec et al 2013), camouflage (Kull 1977;Bailey et al 2015), insulation (Hilton et al 2004;Dhandhukia and Patel 2012;Mainwaring et al 2014b) or for their structural role (Bailey et al 2014;Biddle et al 2015Biddle et al , 2017. Whether these materials are deliberately selected for specific roles has yet to be fully investigated, but it is known that variation in a particular type of material reflects its availability within the local environment (Moreno et al 2008;Surgey et al 2012;Álvarez et al 2013;Cantarero et al 2015;Briggs and Deeming 2016).…”