Chapter 15 Flashcards
Bird nest pictures!!!
CHeck out for exam!!!
Nesting materials
Plant materials:
Sticks and twigs
Reeds and grasses
Green vegetation
Aromatic plant materials
provide fumigants to repel
parasite
Other: spiderwebs, mud, sand, rocks
who constructs the nest?
Polygynous species: female only
Polyandrous species: male only
Monogamous species: both sexes - variation
Males build many potential nests, female selects
Male gathers, female builds
Male gathers and builds, female adds lining
How is nest building done?
- Prime materials may be in short supply; Thievery is common, especially in large seabird, heron, and penguin colonies
- Most swifts (subfamily Apodinae) use their own, hardened saliva to glue
their nests together
Edible-nest swiftlet: Nests are made entirely of saliva; Used to make bird’s-nest soup
How is the bird nest an extended part of the phenotype?
- the nest is a component of the extended phenotype of the bird: the
total of the individual’s effect on its environment.
Nests are a complex product of the bird’s genes, morphology, behavior, and
previous social experience interacting with its environment, including
potential nest sites, the variety of available nest materials, and the
individual’s social environment, such as social density, competition, and its
social relations with its mate
What are the three types of passerine nest?
- cavity or hole nests (in a burrow in the ground or in a tree)
- open-cup nests (outside of holes)
- domed nests (with a constructed roof
Which type of passerine nesting seems to be the ancestral type?
Building of elaborate nests was a key feature of the adaptive radiation and evolutionary success of the songbirds (Order Passeriformes)
- The generally small body sizes of songbirds, combined with their strong powers of flight and flexible nesting behaviors, allowed them to compete with the hole nesters
So cavity nesters
What are the different types of swallow nests?
-Some swallows burrow into hillsides, others adopt tree cavities, and still others
build mud nests on cliffs or human constructions
-The use of pure mud to construct hanging nests is unique among all birds
How does Nest construction happen?
- Birds inherit behavioral preferences to seek out particular sites and materials in their
environments and manipulate them in specific ways to create their nests
In many species, construction improves with exoerience
Methods of nest construction
scraping, digging, drilling, piling, jamming, interlacing, felting, sewing,
weaving, tying, and accumulating mouthfuls of mud
Nest Crypsis
- ground nesters
- dense clumps of grass, vine tangles, or hidden crevices mimimize the chance of discovery
- Nesting flippine nightjars example
Nest inaccessibility
- seabirds nest on sheer cliffs and swifts nest in deep caves or behind waterfalls
Nest defense
- example: Australia Magpie, defends nest aggressively and frequent attacks ensue
- Killdeer have nest distraction displays that looks like an injury; ground nesting species
Nesting near predator determinants
- Black-chinned Hummingbirds nesting near an Accipiter hawk nest (yellow dot) have higher fledging success
(green dots) than do nests farther away (red dots). - The hawks force the Mexican Jays to forage higher in the forest (contour lines), where they are less likely to
detect the hummingbird nests.
What are nest microclimates determined by?
- Thickness of insulation
- Heat produced by the incubating parent
- Location: Placing a nest in or out of the sun, shade, or wind
- Nests in cavities and burrows conserves energy (but have poor ventilation)
- Relative humidity of the air: affects the rate of water loss from the eggs and
hence their hatchability (while eggshells are resistant to water loss, they aren’t
perfect)
What are fecal sacs?
- enclosed membrane around waste
- eaten by parents for sanitation and nutrition, most passerines and woodpeckers
What are the physiological/physical changes associated with incubation?
- Daily changes in plasma hormone concentrations at onset of incubation
- The rise of prolactin is associated with incubation behavior
- Testosterone - inhibits the expression of parental behavior in birds – drops after mating
Who creates changes to the body because of incubation?
- Narrow temperature and hydration tolerances of embryos inside the eggs demand rigorous attendance by parents
- Parents take regularly alternating shifts and achieve nearly continuous coverage of the eggs in many groups
example: some birds are inconspicuous shift changers, while Great Blue herons have a ceremony of relief
How does nest type influence parental activity at the nest?
- increased parental activity at nest with increased nest predation risk in open habitats, vs cavity nesters
What are brood patches?
patches of featherless skin, can be ribcage area often!!
How do rates of development differ in different species?
- The development of the avian chick proceeds through a well-defined sequence of
morphological stages from fertilization to hatching - Sn1 –1
E1–1
