Who bullies whom at a garden feeder? Interspecific agonistic interactions of small passerines during a cold winter

Wojczulanis‐Jakubas, Katarzyna; Kulpińska, Monika; Minias, Piotr

doi:10.1007/s10164-015-0424-x

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Body size frequently determines, or contributes to, the development of dominance hierarchies, outcomes of agonistic interactions, and subsequent resource access (Forrester, 1991;Wojczulanis-Jakubas et al, 2015;Miller et al, 2017). However, there were no obvious patterns in the species co-occurrence matrix to indicate that negative associations were more common between species closest in body size, or that positive associations were more common between species of greater size disparity.…”

Section: Species Associationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…obs.) and are frequent among feeder-visiting birds in other systems (e.g., Wojczulanis-Jakubas et al, 2015), indicating that interference competition certainly influences feeder access to some degree. However, in our study system exploitative competition is also likely to be a critical mechanism.…”

Section: Underlying Foraging Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dominant competitors may displace others via interference (physical exclusion from a resource via aggression) or exploitative (rapid discovery and removal of a resource) competition (Bertelsmeier et al, 2015). Agonistic interactions are certainly common at bird feeders, with body size found to be a critical factor in determining outcomes (Tamm, 1985;Wojczulanis-Jakubas et al, 2015). Speed of novel food discovery (Tryjanowski et al, 2015) and bird densities at feeding locales (Galbraith et al, 2015) can also vary by species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban Bird Feeders Dominated by a Few Species and Individuals

et al. 2017

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The practice of garden bird feeding is a global phenomenon, involving millions of people and vast quantities of food annually. Many people engage in the practice of feeding assuming that birds gain some benefit from the food they provide, yet recent studies have revealed the potential for detrimental impacts as well. However, there is still a paucity of information on the impacts of feeding, including the ubiquity of these impacts among and within feeder-visiting species. Consistency in feeder use among birds is likely an important determinant of this. Individual birds and species that make frequent use of feeders are more likely to experience both the benefits and detrimental impacts of supplementary food. We investigated patterns of feeder use by garden birds visiting experimental feeding stations in Auckland, New Zealand, with the specific aim of determining whether use of supplementary food was consistent or variable among individuals and species. We used camera traps as well as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to examine intra-and interspecific feeder visitation patterns and to discern species associations. Eleven bird species were detected using feeding stations, however, two introduced species (house sparrow Passer domesticus and spotted dove Streptopelia chinensis) dominated visitation events. These species were present at feeders most frequently, with the largest conspecific group sizes. Significant associations were detected among a number of species, suggesting interspecific interactions are important in determining feeder use. We also found within-species differences in feeder use for all focal species, with individual variation greatest in house sparrows. Furthermore, season had an important influence on most visitation parameters. The observed individual and species-specific differences in supplementary food resource use imply that the impacts of garden bird feeding are not universal. Crucially, particularly given the avifaunal context in New Zealand, resource dominance by introduced species could have potential negative outcomes for native species conservation in cities.

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Section: Species Associationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Underlying Foraging Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban Bird Feeders Dominated by a Few Species and Individuals

et al. 2017

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“…Alternatively, or additionally, species differences in T. gallinae infection dynamics, such as differences in exposure rates, time from infection to infectiousness and intra-specific transmission rates, could influence the timing and degree of population impacts. The larger, more aggressive greenfinch, for example, tends to be dominant over chaffinch and most other species at bird feeders, while interacting aggressively with conspecifics 79 , 80 . This may increase the risk of contamination of, and exposure to, feeders with T. gallinae , in addition to direct conspecific transmission through salivary exchange.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat-use influences severe disease-mediated population declines in two of the most common garden bird species in Great Britain

Hanmer

Cunningham

John

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The influence of supplementary feeding of wildlife on disease transmission and its consequent impacts on population dynamics are underappreciated. In Great Britain, supplementary feeding is hypothesised to have enabled the spread of the protozoan parasite, Trichomonas gallinae, from columbids to finches, leading to epidemic finch trichomonosis and a rapid population decline of greenfinch (Chloris chloris). More recently, chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), has also declined markedly from the second to fifth commonest bird in Britain. Using citizen science data, we show that both declines were driven primarily by reduced adult survival, with the greatest reductions occurring in peri-domestic habitats, where supplementary food provision is common. Post-mortem examinations showed a proportional increase in chaffinch trichomonosis cases, near-contemporaneous with its population decline. Like greenfinches, chaffinches often use supplementary food, but are less associated with human habitation. Our results support the hypothesis that supplementary feeding can increase parasite transmission frequency within and between common species. However, the dynamics behind resultant population change can vary markedly, highlighting the need for integrating disease surveillance with demographic monitoring. Other species susceptible to T. gallinae infection may also be at risk. Supplementary feeding guidelines for wildlife should include disease mitigation strategies to ensure that benefits to target species outweigh risks.

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“…In many temperate systems, survival in winter depends on acquiring adequate food resources [15,16]. Moreover, the use of artificial food sources (e.g., bird feeders) during winter foraging has been identified as having important evolutionary consequences in birds [17,18], including high rates of competitive interactions among and within species foraging at feeder locations [19,20]. In the context of sociality, group foraging can provide more opportunities for resource acquisition than foraging independently due to the shared vigilant effort [21,22] (but see [23]), social information gathering [24,25], and improved rates of competition success over solitary foragers [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of sociality on competitive interactions among birds

Berberi

Miller

Dakin

2022

Preprint

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Sociality can provide many benefits, including increased foraging success, reproductive opportunities, and defence against predation. How does sociality influence the dominance hierarchies of ecological competitors? Here, we address this question using a large citizen science dataset of competitive interactions among birds foraging at backyard feeders, representing a network of over 55,000 interactions among 68 common species. We first show that species differ in average group size (the number of conspecifics observed together) as a fundamental measure of sociality. When analyzing heterospecific competition, we find that sociality is inversely related to dominance. On average, a single individual from a solitary species is more likely to displace a size-matched opponent than a single individual from a social species. Yet, social species tend to gain an increase in their competitive advantage when in the presence of their conspecifics. Finally, we show that more social species have relatively fewer dominance interactions with heterospecifics, and more with conspecifics. Overall, these results demonstrate that sociality can influence competition in ecological networks. More social species have decreased competitive ability as individuals, but they may gain competitive ability in groups.

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Who bullies whom at a garden feeder? Interspecific agonistic interactions of small passerines during a cold winter

Cited by 11 publications

References 24 publications

Urban Bird Feeders Dominated by a Few Species and Individuals

Urban Bird Feeders Dominated by a Few Species and Individuals

Habitat-use influences severe disease-mediated population declines in two of the most common garden bird species in Great Britain

The effect of sociality on competitive interactions among birds

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