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1 June 2008 Nest Quality in Relation to Adult Bird Condition and Its Impact on Reproduction in Great Tits Parus major
Elena Álvarez, Emilio Barba
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Abstract

Birds' nests are special structures built with reproductive aims. Size and structure of the nest can arise from evolutionary trade-offs between benefits such as the insulation from unfavourable conditions, maintenance of eggs or chicks, or security against predation, and costs such as energy spent in construction of the nest and the risk of predation in more visible nests. Therefore, building a good nest is beneficial in terms of reproductive output but expensive in terms of time and energy, so probably only “good” parents would be able to build “good” nests. Our objective was to study possible relationships between the quality of the parents and the quality of the nest, and between the quality of the nest and breeding performance in a Great Tit Parus major population. We found positive relationships between different components of the nest quality and components of breeding performance. However, we did not find any significant relationship between quality of the parents and that of the nest. A weak, though significant positive correlation was found between female size and breeding success rate.

Elena Álvarez and Emilio Barba "Nest Quality in Relation to Adult Bird Condition and Its Impact on Reproduction in Great Tits Parus major," Acta Ornithologica 43(1), 3-9, (1 June 2008). https://doi.org/10.3161/000164508X345275
Received: 1 October 2007; Accepted: 1 May 2008; Published: 1 June 2008
KEYWORDS
breeding performance
clutch size
Great Tit
nest size
parental quality
Parus major
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