scholarly journals The effect of social information from live demonstrators compared to video playback on blue tit foraging decisions

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liisa Hämäläinen ◽  
Hannah M. Rowland ◽  
Johanna Mappes ◽  
Rose Thorogood
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Video Playback ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
Foraging Decisions ◽  
Foraging Task ◽  
Blue Tits ◽  
Live Bird

Video playback provides a promising method to study social interactions, and the number of video playback experiments has been growing in recent years. Using videos has advantages over live individuals as it increases the repeatability of demonstrations, and enables researchers to manipulate the features of the presented stimulus. How observers respond to video playback might, however, differ among species, and the efficacy of video playback should be validated by investigating if individuals’ responses to videos are comparable to their responses to live demonstrators. Here, we use a novel foraging task to compare blue tits’ (Cyanistes caeruleus) responses to social information from a live conspecific vs video playback. Birds first received social information about the location of food, and were then presented with a three-choice foraging task where they could search for food from locations marked with different symbols (cross, square, plain white). Two control groups saw only a foraging tray with similar symbols but no information about the location of food. We predicted that socially educated birds would prefer the same location where a demonstrator had foraged, but we found no evidence that birds copied a demonstrator’s choice, regardless of how social information was presented. Social information, however, had an influence on blue tits’ foraging choices, as socially educated birds seemed to form a stronger preference for a square symbol (against two other options, cross and plain white) than the control birds. Our results suggest that blue tits respond to video playback of a conspecific similarly as to a live bird, but how they use this social information in their foraging decisions, remains unclear.

scholarly journals Can video playback provide social information for foraging blue tits?

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liisa Hämäläinen ◽  
Hannah M. Rowland ◽  
Johanna Mappes ◽  
Rose Thorogood
Keyword(s):  
Social Information ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Prey Type ◽  
Video Playback ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Video Screen ◽  
Foraging Decisions ◽  
Empty Cage ◽  
Blue Tits

Video playback is becoming a common method for manipulating social stimuli in experiments. Parid tits are one of the most commonly studied groups of wild birds. However, it is not yet clear if tits respond to video playback or how their behavioural responses should be measured. Behaviours may also differ depending on what they observe demonstrators encountering. Here we present blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) videos of demonstrators discovering palatable or aversive prey (injected with bitter-tasting Bitrex) from coloured feeding cups. First we quantify variation in demonstrators’ responses to the prey items: aversive prey provoked high rates of beak wiping and head shaking. We then show that focal blue tits respond differently to the presence of a demonstrator on a video screen, depending on whether demonstrators discover palatable or aversive prey. Focal birds faced the video screen more during aversive prey presentations, and made more head turns. Regardless of prey type, focal birds also hopped more frequently during the presence of a demonstrator (compared to a control video of a different coloured feeding cup in an empty cage). Finally, we tested if demonstrators’ behaviour affected focal birds’ food preferences by giving individuals a choice to forage from the same cup as a demonstrator, or from the cup in the control video. We found that only half of the individuals made their choice in accordance to social information in the videos, i.e., their foraging choices were not different from random. Individuals that chose in accordance with a demonstrator, however, made their choice faster than individuals that chose an alternative cup. Together, our results suggest that video playback can provide social cues to blue tits, but individuals vary greatly in how they use this information in their foraging decisions.

scholarly journals Do glucocorticoids predict fitness? Linking environmental conditions, corticosterone and reproductive success in the blue tit, Cyanistes caeruleus

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 170875 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Henderson ◽  
N. P. Evans ◽  
B. J. Heidinger ◽  
K. A. Herborn ◽  
K. E. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Brood Rearing ◽  
Fledging Success ◽  
Harsh Conditions ◽  
Blue Tits

Glucocorticoids, including corticosterone (CORT), have been suggested to provide a physiological link between ecological conditions and fitness. Specifically, CORT, which is elevated in response to harsh conditions, is predicted to be correlated with reduced fitness. Yet, empirical studies show that CORT can be non-significantly, positively and negatively linked with fitness. Divergent environmental conditions between years or study systems may influence whether CORT is linked to fitness. To test this, we monitored free-living blue tits ( Cyanistes caeruleus ) during breeding over 3 years. We quantified foraging conditions during brood rearing, and examined whether they were correlated with parental baseline CORT and reproductive success. We then tested whether CORT predicted fitness. Elevated parental CORT was associated with lower temperatures, greater rainfall and lower territory-scale oak density. Whereas asynchrony with the caterpillar food peak was correlated with reduced nestling mass and fledging success, but not parental CORT. Only low temperatures were associated with both reduced nestling mass and elevated parental CORT. Despite this, parents with elevated CORT had lighter offspring in all years. Contrarily, in 2009 parental CORT was positively correlated with the number fledged. The absence of a direct link between the foraging conditions that reduce nestling quality and elevate parental CORT suggests that parental CORT may provide a holistic measure of conditions where parents are working harder to meet the demands of developing young. As the positive correlation between parental CORT and fledging success differed between years, this suggests that contrasting conditions between years can influence correlations between parental CORT and fitness. Ultimately, as CORT concentrations are intrinsically variable and linked to the prevalent conditions, studies that incorporate environmental harshness will improve our understanding of evolutionary endocrinology.

scholarly journals Does mist-netting provide reliable data to determine the sex and age ratios of migrating birds? A case study involving the Great Tit (Parus major) and the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarosław K. Nowakowski ◽  
Jacek Chruściel ◽  
Krzysztof Muś
Keyword(s):  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Reliable Data ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
Baltic Coast ◽  
Migrating Birds ◽  
Blue Tits ◽  
Age And Sex

AbstractNowakowski J.K., Chruściel J., Muś K.: Does mist-netting provide reliable data to determine the sex and age ratios of migrating birds? A case study involving the Great Tit (Parus major) and the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). Ekologia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 2, p. 173-185 , 2013.Ringing results of tits caught at two stations on the Polish Baltic coast were used to check if mistnetting could be successfully used to analyse the composition of sex and age classes of migrating birds. Four hypotheses are discussed, describing the distribution of age and sex classes during migration, and the consequences these distributions might have for the catching results. We analysed records of 59 000 Blue Tits and more than 84 000 Great Tits that were caught and we found a similarity in the results of catches at stations 188 km apart, and a higher similarity among catching sites 0.5-16 km apart. These results proved that mist-netting provides reliable data on the sex and age structure of migrating flocks, and that these data can generally be interpreted as representative for at least the area in a radius of more than 10 km. The results also showed a migratory divide through the central part of the Polish Baltic coastline between irruptive Blue Tits in the west and regular partial migrants in the east. Great Tits showed no tendency for irruptions anywhere in the study area. A high correspondence in the age and sex ratio was found for Great Tits and Blue Tits, in particular where both species are regular migrants. We found that the ratios of females and immatures did not differ by more than 1% over many years of study in these areas.

scholarly journals Do Partial and Regular Migrants Differ in Their Responses to Weather?

The Auk ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 537-547
Author(s):  
Anna L. K. Nilsson ◽  
Thomas Alerstam ◽  
Jan-Åke Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
Migratory Activity ◽  
Partial Migrant ◽  
Orientation Cues ◽  
Calm Weather ◽  
Blue Tits ◽  
Good Visibility

AbstractPartial migration is often considered a transitory stage between migration and residency, and whether partial migrants take weather conditions into account during migration is largely unknown. To assess whether partial migrants differ from regular migrants in their responses to weather, we compared the migratory intensity of a partial migrant, the Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), with more regular migrants in relation to weather at a migratory passage site in southern Sweden (Falsterbo) during the years 1993–2002. The regular migrants in the study were Linnet (Carduelis cannabina), Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), Brambling (F. montifringilla), and European Robin (Erithacus rubecula). The Blue Tit differed from the regular migrants mainly in showing a striking negative correlation between migratory activity and cloud cover. Also, weather had the highest explanatory power for migratory intensity in the Blue Tit. This suggests that the Blue Tit is more sensitive to weather conditions on migration than the regular migrants and that it preferably awaits days with wholly or partly clear skies before migrating past Falsterbo. As a consequence, Blue Tits usually restrict their migratory flights to the safest occasions, with relatively calm weather, good visibility, and all orientation cues (solar as well as magnetic) available.¿Difieren los Migrantes Parciales y Regulares en sus Respuestas al Clima?

scholarly journals A fixed agreement—consequences of brood size manipulation on alternation in blue tits

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maaike Griffioen ◽  
Wendt Müller ◽  
Arne Iserbyt
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Mass Gain ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Conditional Cooperation ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
Directional Change ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Blue Tits

Recent studies have proposed that conditional cooperation may resolve sexual conflict over the amount of care provided by each parent. Such conditional cooperation may allow parents to equalize their investment by alternating their provisioning visits. This alternated pattern of male and female visits, that is, alternation, is thought to stimulate each other’s investment leading to higher levels of provisioning and potential benefits for offspring development. However, experimental studies testing the role of alternation as an adaptive parental strategy to negotiate the level of investment are still absent. Therefore, we manipulated blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) parents by temporarily changing their brood sizes to induce changes in demand and thus visit rates. Parents were expected to visit more—assuming that prey sizes were constant—and alternate at higher levels when confronted with an enlarged brood given the greater potential for sexual conflict. In contrast, in reduced broods visit rates and alternation may become lower due to the smaller investment that is needed for reduced broods. We show that the level of alternation did not differ in response to the manipulated brood sizes, despite a directional change in visit rates for enlarged and reduced broods as expected. Nestlings did not benefit from high levels of alternation as no effects on nestling mass gain were present in either of the different manipulations. These findings indicate that alternation does not serve as a mechanism to motivate each other to feed at higher rates. Parents hence appeared to be inflexible in their level of alternation. We therefore suggest that the level of alternation might reflect a fixed agreement about the relative investment by each of the caring parents.

scholarly journals A Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus population: its recent increase and breeding data

Ornis Svecica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1–2) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
Karl Gustav Schölin ◽  
Hans Källander
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Breeding Population ◽  
Laying Date ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
South Central ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Blue Tits

Before 1983, Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus never made up more than four pairs of the breeding population in a nestbox study carried out in South Central Sweden. From five breeding pairs in 1983, the population increased to 29 pairs in 2007 and remained high to the end of the study in 2011. Mean laying date was strongly correlated with mean April temperature, which increased during 1983–2011. During the same period mean laying date became nearly ten days earlier. Mean clutch size was 9.90 eggs but varied both within and between years and showed a negative relationship to population size. The mean number of fledglings varied strongly between years, partly because of predation but also due to nestling starvation.

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