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Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor
The quality of a breeding site may have major fitness consequences. A fundamental step to understanding the process of nest-site selection is the identification of the information individuals use to choose high-quality nest sites. For secondary cavity-nesting bird species that do not add nest lining...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6280097/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30538728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy012 |
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author | Podofillini, Stefano Cecere, Jacopo G Griggio, Matteo Curcio, Andrea De Capua, Enrico L Fulco, Egidio Pirrello, Simone Saino, Nicola Serra, Lorenzo Visceglia, Matteo Rubolini, Diego |
author_facet | Podofillini, Stefano Cecere, Jacopo G Griggio, Matteo Curcio, Andrea De Capua, Enrico L Fulco, Egidio Pirrello, Simone Saino, Nicola Serra, Lorenzo Visceglia, Matteo Rubolini, Diego |
author_sort | Podofillini, Stefano |
collection | PubMed |
description | The quality of a breeding site may have major fitness consequences. A fundamental step to understanding the process of nest-site selection is the identification of the information individuals use to choose high-quality nest sites. For secondary cavity-nesting bird species that do not add nest lining material, organic remains (faeces, pellets) accumulated inside nest cavities during previous breeding events may be a cue for high-quality nest-sites, as they contain information about past successful breeding and may improve thermal insulation of eggs during incubation. However, cavities in which breeding was successful might also contain more nest-dwelling ectoparasites than unoccupied cavities, offering an incentive for prospective parents to avoid them. We exposed breeding cavity-nesting lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni) to nestbox dyads consisting of a dirty (with a thick layer of organic substrate) and a clean nestbox (without organic material). Dirty nestboxes were strongly preferred, being occupied earlier and more frequently than clean ones. Hatching success in dirty nestboxes was significantly higher than in clean ones, suggesting a positive effect of organic nest material on incubation efficiency, while nestbox dirtiness did not significantly affect clutch and brood size. Nestlings from dirty nestboxes had significantly higher ectoparasite load than those from clean nestboxes soon after egg hatching, but this difference was not evident a few days later. Nest substrate did not significantly affect nestling growth. We concluded that nest substrate is a key driver of nest-site choice in lesser kestrels, although the adaptive value of such a strong preference appears elusive and may be context-dependent. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6280097 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-62800972018-12-11 Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor Podofillini, Stefano Cecere, Jacopo G Griggio, Matteo Curcio, Andrea De Capua, Enrico L Fulco, Egidio Pirrello, Simone Saino, Nicola Serra, Lorenzo Visceglia, Matteo Rubolini, Diego Curr Zool Articles The quality of a breeding site may have major fitness consequences. A fundamental step to understanding the process of nest-site selection is the identification of the information individuals use to choose high-quality nest sites. For secondary cavity-nesting bird species that do not add nest lining material, organic remains (faeces, pellets) accumulated inside nest cavities during previous breeding events may be a cue for high-quality nest-sites, as they contain information about past successful breeding and may improve thermal insulation of eggs during incubation. However, cavities in which breeding was successful might also contain more nest-dwelling ectoparasites than unoccupied cavities, offering an incentive for prospective parents to avoid them. We exposed breeding cavity-nesting lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni) to nestbox dyads consisting of a dirty (with a thick layer of organic substrate) and a clean nestbox (without organic material). Dirty nestboxes were strongly preferred, being occupied earlier and more frequently than clean ones. Hatching success in dirty nestboxes was significantly higher than in clean ones, suggesting a positive effect of organic nest material on incubation efficiency, while nestbox dirtiness did not significantly affect clutch and brood size. Nestlings from dirty nestboxes had significantly higher ectoparasite load than those from clean nestboxes soon after egg hatching, but this difference was not evident a few days later. Nest substrate did not significantly affect nestling growth. We concluded that nest substrate is a key driver of nest-site choice in lesser kestrels, although the adaptive value of such a strong preference appears elusive and may be context-dependent. Oxford University Press 2018-12 2018-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6280097/ /pubmed/30538728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy012 Text en © The Author(s) (2018). Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
spellingShingle | Articles Podofillini, Stefano Cecere, Jacopo G Griggio, Matteo Curcio, Andrea De Capua, Enrico L Fulco, Egidio Pirrello, Simone Saino, Nicola Serra, Lorenzo Visceglia, Matteo Rubolini, Diego Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor |
title | Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor |
title_full | Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor |
title_fullStr | Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor |
title_full_unstemmed | Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor |
title_short | Home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor |
title_sort | home, dirty home: effect of old nest material on nest-site selection and breeding performance in a cavity-nesting raptor |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6280097/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30538728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy012 |
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