Incubation during the Egg-Laying Period in Relation to Clutch-Size and Other Aspects of Reproduction in the Great Tit Parus major

1981 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svein Haftorn
Keyword(s):  
Clutch Size ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Egg Laying

scholarly journals Epigenetic mediation of the onset of reproduction in a songbird

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Lindner ◽  
Veronika N. Laine ◽  
Irene Verhagen ◽  
Heidi M. Viitaniemi ◽  
Marcel E. Visser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Regulatory Region ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Avian Reproduction ◽  
Directional Variation

ABSTRACTClimate change significantly impacts natural populations, particularly phenology traits, like the seasonal onset of reproduction in birds. This impact is mainly via plastic responses in phenology traits to changes in the environment, but the molecular mechanism mediating this plasticity remains elusive. Epigenetic modifications can mediate plasticity and consequently constitute promising candidates for mediating phenology traits. Here, we used genome-wide DNA methylation profiles of individual great tit (Parus major) females that we blood sampled repeatedly throughout the breeding season. We demonstrate rapid and directional variation in DNA methylation within the regulatory region of genes known to play key roles in avian reproduction that are in line with observed changes in gene expression in chickens. Our findings provide an important step towards unraveling the molecular mechanism mediating a key life history trait, an essential knowledge-gap for understanding how natural populations may cope with future climate change.IMPACT SUMMARYNatural populations are increasingly challenged by changing environmental conditions like global increases in temperature. A key way for species to adapt to global warming is via phenotypic plasticity, i.e. the ability to adjust the expression of traits to the environment. We, however, know little about how the environment can interact with an organism’s genetic make-up to shape its trait value. Epigenetic marks are known to vary with the environment and can modulate the expression of traits without any change in the genetic make-up and therefore have the potential to mediate phenotypic plasticity.To study the role of epigenetics for phenotypic plasticity, we here focus on the great tit (Parus major), a species that is strongly affected by global warming and plastic for temperature in an essential phenology trait, the seasonal onset of egg laying. As a first step, we investigated whether great tit females show within-individual and short-term variation in DNA methylation that corresponds to changes in the reproductive state of females. We therefore housed breeding pairs in climate-controlled aviaries to blood sample each female repeatedly throughout the breeding season and used these repeated samples for methylation profiling.We found rapid and directional variation in DNA methylation at the time females prepared to initiate egg laying that is located within the regulatory region of genes that have previously described functions for avian reproduction. Although future work is needed to establish a causal link between the observed temporal variation in DNA methylation and the onset of reproduction in female great tits, our work highlights the potential role for epigenetic modifications in mediating an essential phenology trait that is sensitive to temperatures.

Genomic dissection of variation in clutch size and egg mass in a wild great tit (Parus major) population

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 3949-3962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna W. Santure ◽  
Isabelle De Cauwer ◽  
Matthew R. Robinson ◽  
Jocelyn Poissant ◽  
Ben C. Sheldon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clutch Size ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Egg Mass

The Inheritance of Clutch Size in the Great Tit (Parus major L.)

The Condor ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 225 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Perrins ◽  
P. J. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Clutch Size ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit

Dawn Singing in the Great Tit (Parus Major): Mate Attraction, Mate Guarding, or Territorial Defence?

Behaviour ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 131 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 115-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Slagsvold ◽  
Glenn-Peter SÆTRE ◽  
Svein Dale
Keyword(s):  
Bird Species ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Mate Guarding ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Territorial Defence ◽  
Resident Male ◽  
Conflicting Demands

AbstractIn a number of passerine bird species, mated males sing at dawn and this song activity peaks in the fertile period of the mate. We present the hypothesis that an important function of such dawn singing is to maintain the territory. We suggest that mate guarding and territorial defence are demanding and often mutually exclusive activities. Losing paternity is so costly that males give priority to mate guarding. Males therefore use the early morning period, before their mate emerges from the roost, to claim territory ownership. We report some preliminary tests of this hypothesis from a study of great tits (Parus major). Simulating male intrusion by a playback experiment showed that the resident male was more often absent from central parts of the territory, following the mate, during the periods of nest building and egg laying than during incubation. This supports the assumption of conflicting demands between mate following and territorial defence. From the hypothesis we expected males to spend effort in defending their territory as soon as they were free to do so. Consistent with this prediction, we found that male song activity was high before the mate left the nest at dawn, when she temporarily visited the nest during the day, and when she entered the nest to roost at night. A female removal experiment showed that unmated males, having no mate to guard, sang as much at dawn as mated males. Only one of the eight widowed males succeeded to replace their mate. We discuss some alternative functions of dawn singing in the great tit, such as attraction of own mate, a replacement mate, and extra-pair mates. We conclude that the hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, and song may serve multiple purposes.

scholarly journals No evidence that nest site choice in Pied Flycatchers is mediated by assessing the clutch size of a heterospecific, the Great Tit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Slagsvold ◽  
Karen L. Wiebe
Keyword(s):  
Clutch Size ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Nest Site ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Laying Date ◽  
Nest Boxes ◽  
Nest Choice ◽  
Nest Site Choice

AbstractAmong species that use similar resources, an individual may benefit by observing and copying the behavioural decision of a heterospecific. We tested the hypothesis of heterospecific social learning in passerine birds, namely that a migrant species, the Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca, uses external markings on the nest cavities of a resident species, the Great Tit Parus major, as cues when choosing a nest site. Others have suggested that prospecting flycatchers assess the clutch size of tit “demonstrators” by entering their nest boxes and, assuming that a large clutch indicates a high-quality individual, will copy the nest appearance of tits with large, but not small clutches. During a 4-year period in Norway, we designed a similar study but did not find that flycatchers based their nest choice on the clutch size of tits. Neither were there any relationships between clutch size of the tit and its laying date, incubation behaviour, or the number of eggs visible through nest material during egg-laying so Pied Flycatchers did not use these indirect cues to assess quality of the tutor. Filming of tit nests showed that prospecting flycatchers did not enter tit nest boxes to assess the content. Indeed, incubating female tits only left their nest boxes for short bouts of unpredictable duration so there was little opportunity for flycatchers to inspect the nest contents unnoticed. Our study calls into question the mechanism of using the content of tit nests as public information for choosing traits of nest sites based on external characteristics. We suggest that similar studies of nest site choice in relation to possible social information transfer be replicated more widely.

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