Natural Variation in Flight Performance Is Related to Timing of Breeding in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in New York

The Auk ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-353
Author(s):  
David W. Winkler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
Tachycineta Bicolor ◽  
Timing Of Breeding ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Tree Swallows

scholarly journals Natural Variation in Flight Performance is Related to Timing of Breeding in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta Bicolor) in New York

The Auk ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa S. Bowlin ◽  
David W. Winkler
Keyword(s):  
Egg Production ◽  
Natural Variation ◽  
Performance Test ◽  
Tachycineta Bicolor ◽  
Laying Date ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Individual Quality ◽  
Tree Swallows ◽  
Flight Ability ◽  
Clutch Initiation

Abstract In many avian species, including Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), females that lay eggs earlier in the season have higher fitness. It has been hypothesized that nonheritable variation in individual quality could explain how variation in laying date persists in the face of this apparently directional selection. Previous experimental work on Tree Swallows has suggested that natural variation in flight ability enables early-laying females to attain feeding rates high enough to support egg production on earlier, sparser food than later-laying females. We tested that hypothesis with standardized flights through a 9.75-m flight-performance test tunnel. One group of female swallows was tested at the height of the breeding season on 28 May regardless of their nesting phenology; another group was tested on the 11th day of incubation. Average acceleration in the tunnel was negatively correlated with clutch initiation date for the females tested on 28 May. Daily variation in ambient environmental conditions had strong effects on swallow flight performance in the tunnel, and no relationship was observed in the day-11 birds. Because natural variation in foraging performance is correlated with variation in female Tree Swallows' clutch initiation dates, flight ability appears to be a key element of individual quality in this species.

Site- and sex-level differences in adult feeding behaviour and its consequences to offspring quality in tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) following brood-size manipulation

2007 ◽  
Vol 85 (8) ◽  
pp. 847-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.R. Ardia
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Feeding Rate ◽  
Tachycineta Bicolor ◽  
Tree Swallows ◽  
Offspring Quality ◽  
Brood Size Manipulation ◽  
Feeding Effort ◽  
Adult Feeding ◽  
Habitat Differences

In species with biparental care, males tend to invest less in offspring than do females, likely because of differences in the costs and benefits associated with parental effort. Here I test for sex differences in the response of tree swallows ( Tachycineta bicolor (Vieillot, 1808)) to a brood-size manipulation at two locations differing in food resources, Alaska and New York. I tested sex and habitat differences in how swallows responded to changes in offspring demand. At both sites, both sexes increased effort when feeding enlarged broods, although Alaskan males increased feeding less than Alaskan females. Males decreased feeding effort more to reduced broods than females, but only in Alaska. Food abundance was higher in Alaska than in New York, and Alaskan tree swallows made more feeding visits than New York tree swallows. In New York, food availability did not predict feeding rate and there was no sex difference in the response to brood manipulation. In both sites, male feeding effort was linked with nestling residual body mass, while female feeding effort was correlated with nestling growth rate. This study demonstrates that male tree swallows differ from females by being the first to reduce feeding effort under certain conditions and that male and female feeding rate affects offspring quality differently.

Accumulation of PCB Congeners in Nestling Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) on the Hudson River, New York

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (23) ◽  
pp. 6240-6246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy R. Echols ◽  
Donald E. Tillitt ◽  
John W. Nichols ◽  
Anne L. Secord ◽  
John P. McCarty
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Hudson River ◽  
Tachycineta Bicolor ◽  
Tree Swallows ◽  
Pcb Congeners

The costs of reproduction in tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)

1991 ◽  
Vol 69 (10) ◽  
pp. 2540-2547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel T. Wheelwright ◽  
Joanna Leary ◽  
Caragh Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Clutch Size ◽  
Brood Size ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Tachycineta Bicolor ◽  
Laying Date ◽  
Tree Swallows ◽  
Costs Of Reproduction ◽  
Return Rates ◽  
Trade Offs

We investigated the effect of brood size on nestling growth and survival, parental survival, and future fecundity in tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) over a 4-year period (1987–1990) in an effort to understand whether reproductive trade-offs limit clutch size in birds. In addition to examining naturally varying brood sizes in a population on Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada, we experimentally modified brood sizes, increasing or decreasing the reproductive burdens of females by two offspring. Unlike previous studies, broods of the same females were enlarged or reduced in up to 3 successive years in a search for evidence of cumulative costs of reproduction that might go undetected by a single brood manipulation. Neither observation nor experiment supported the existence of a trade-off between offspring quality and quantity, in contrast with the predictions of life-history theory. Nestling wing length, mass, and tarsus length were unrelated to brood size. Although differences between means were in the direction predicted, few differences were statistically significant, despite large sample sizes. Nestlings from small broods were no more likely to return as breeding adults than nestlings from large broods, but return rates of both groups were very low. Parental return rates were also independent of brood size, and there was no evidence of a negative effect of brood size on future fecundity (laying date, clutch size). Reproductive success, nestling size, and survival did not differ between treatments for females whose broods were manipulated in successive years. Within the range of brood sizes observed in this study, the life-history costs of feeding one or two additional nestlings in tree swallows appear to be slight and cannot explain observed clutch sizes. Costs not measured in this study, such as the production of eggs or postfledging parental care, may be more important in limiting clutch size in birds.

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