Journal
JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY
Volume 157, Issue 2, Pages 635-640Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s10336-015-1323-1
Keywords
Incubation; Seychelles; Thermal image; White-tailed Tropicbirds
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Funding
- University of KwaZulu-Natal publication incentive fund
- National Research Foundation
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Birds generally incubate eggs by transferring body heat from an exposed abdominal area known as a brood patch. However, there are exceptions to this where some species use foot-mediated incubation. It was previously thought that, although White-tailed Tropicbirds, Phaethon lepturus, lack a brood patch, the heat generated by their feet was too low to incubate their eggs. Using modern thermal imaging techniques, our results indicate the opposite, revealing that tropicbird feet are an important heat source when incubating their eggs.
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