Journal
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Volume 78, Issue 3, Pages 601-613Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.05.022
Keywords
cavity-nesting passerine; egg neglect; egg viability; energy constraints; hatching asynchrony; hatching success; incubation onset; partial incubation; Passeriformes
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [IOB-0517549]
- U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit [MB101830-0]
- University of California
- Berkeley Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee [R233]
- California student scientific collecting [803052-03, 803012-03]
- California Department of Fish and Game
- Animal Behavior Society, Sigma Xi
- American Ornithological Union
- University of California, Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
- University of California, Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
- University of California Hopland Research and Extension Centre
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Variation among species in the onset of incubation has been attributed to differences in life history traits, and variation within species has been related to individual and environmental factors. We quantified within- and among-species variation in the onset of incubation in five cavity-nesting passerines, using a continuous record of diurnal and nocturnal incubation from clutch initiation through completion. We documented 11 potential patterns for the onset of incubation and showed that onset patterns were significantly related to hatching success. The onset of diurnal partial incubation and nocturnal full incubation generally occurred before diurnal full incubation, which started around clutch completion. Increases in precipitation or wind speed significantly delayed most types of incubation onset, supporting predictions of the energy constraints hypothesis. Ancillary predictions of rain and wind disproportionately delaying incubation for aerial foragers, and for species with male feeding during incubation, were not upheld. Larger clutch size accelerated the timing of full incubation onset in diurnal and nocturnal full incubation, supporting predictions of the egg viability hypothesis. Predictions of both hypotheses for the effects of minimum temperature, proportion of time above 24 degrees C, and seasonality on incubation onset were not supported. We observed egg neglect for up to 4 days or nights; neglect was more common at night, and consecutive nights of neglect occurred during nocturnal full incubation. Egg neglect did not significantly affect hatching success or incubation period. In conclusion, the timing of incubation onset was strongly affected by environmental and individual factors, and patterns of incubation onset affected hatching success. (C) 2009 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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