Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 31 abstract Maternal yolk hormones can enhance the development and phenotypic quality of nestling birds. Nevertheless, within species large differences in yolk androgen concentrations among clutches are observed. This differential allocation of maternal yolk hormones might be explained by a trade-off between beneficial effects of yolk androgens and their […]
Tag: Great Tit
Delays of the hatching dates in Great Tits Parus major: Effects on breeding performance
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 21 abstract The effects of delays of hatching date, caused by temporary interruptions or lengthening of breeding activities such as nest building, laying or incubation, on several fitness-related components were studied in a Great Tit Parus major population in eastern Spain. Hatching delays were relatively more frequent during an […]
Are unseen effects of early environment negligible? Threeexamples in great tits (Parus major)
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 9 abstract Three case studies failed to demonstrate impacts of early environment or maternal effects on breeding in situationswhere they could have been expected. This leads to a number of methodological questions about the resolving power requiredto detect such impacts, but above all else to the conclusion that maternal […]
Great Tit Parus major survival and the beech-crop cycle
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 2 abstract The single most important environmental variable correlating with annual survival of both juvenile and adult Great Tits Parus major is the beech crop index (BCI). This index is a measure for the amount of seeds of beeches present in the winter, and correlates with crop size of […]
Diurnal mass gain strategies and perceived predation risk in the great tit Parus major
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 30 abstract Individual animals optimize their body mass to enhance fitness and mass is expected to be optimized over both short and long time-scales. On the short time-scale small birds increase mass as they build up energy reserves over each day to avoid starving at night. Theory predicts that […]
Paternal leakage of mitochondrial DNA in the great tit
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 25 abstract The animal mitochondrial DNA is normally inherited clonally from mother to all her offspring. Mitochondrial heteroplasmy, the occurrence of more than one mitochondrial haplotype within an individual can be generated by relatively common somatic mutations within an individual, by heteroplasmy of the oocytes or by paternal leakage […]
Manipulation of laying effort reveals habitat-specific variation in egg production constraints in Great Tits ( Parus major )
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 13 abstract It has been suggested that a bird’s clutch size is not limited by the amount of resources available at the time of laying but that differences in the availability of food for nestlings is the ultimate underlying factor determining spatio-temporal variations in clutch size. However, habitat-related variations […]
Breeding dispersal of Great Tits Parus major in a homogeneous habitat: effects of sex, age, and mating status.
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 1 abstract We studied patterns of breeding dispersal of adult Great Tits Parus major in a homogeneous habitat (extensive orange plantations) in eastern Spain. Data included 482 movements of known individuals gathered during 11 years. Most birds (67%) did not change territory between seasons. Dispersal propensity was independent of […]
The effects of trapping on the perception, and trade-off, of risks in the Great Tit Parus major
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 24 abstract Great Tits Parus major and other small birds at temperate latitudes insure against overnight starvation in winter by building up a fat reserve each day, which is then depleted over night. Because this may increase their risk of predation, the levels of fat reserves carried appear to […]
The quality of pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) and great tit (Parus major) females in an air pollution gradient
Great Tit (Parus major) Science Article 5 abstract We studied whether pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) and great tit (Parus major) females differed in quality between polluted and unpolluted habitats. Comparing female condition between incubation and nestling periods, we aimed at testing whether biometric differences in F. hypoleuca females were caused by assortative settlement (i.e. intraspecific […]