乌鸫的繁殖行为与坐巢行为初步观察

于2009年3～7月、2010年3～6月,采用焦点动物观察法和全事件行为记录法对乌鸫(Turdusmerula)的孵卵及育雏行为进行了研究。结果表明,乌鸫是雌鸟孵卵,在孵卵期出现卵损失现象,具补卵行为;孵卵前期与后期的坐巢行为存在差异,且其坐巢时间、频次和坐巢率有随孵卵数递增的趋势。双亲育雏但以雌鸟为主,喂食模式3种:雌鸟喂食、雄鸟喂食、雄鸟将食物递给雌鸟由雌鸟喂食。随着雏鸟日龄的增长,喂食次数增多,暖雏行为减少,至育雏后期未观察到暖雏行为。为权衡孵卵期和育雏前期的能量分配,乌鸫在孵卵期及育雏前期分别采取时间长而频次少和时间短而频次多的坐巢策略。     

栗喉蜂虎捕食差异

2010年4～5月和2011年4～6月,用焦点动物取样法对云南省保山市潞江镇怒江河谷栗喉蜂虎捕食差异进行了观察。对栗喉蜂虎雌性成年鸟、雄性成年鸟、青年鸟捕食种类、数量、成功率、食物组成、食物资源量、处理食物成功率及处理时间进行了统计。结果表明,栗喉蜂虎捕食种类包括7类昆虫,以膜翅目Hymenoptera、蜻蜓目Odonate、鳞翅目Lepidoptera昆虫为主;成年雄鸟捕食频次高于成年雌鸟和青年鸟;成年鸟与青年鸟处理食物成功率无显著差异,但二者捕食成功率和处理食物时间差异显著。     

灰胸薮鹛繁殖行为初报

2009年春季在四川省屏山县老君山自然保护区对灰胸薮鹛Liocichla omeiensis繁殖行为进行了观察.灰胸薮鹛胆小畏人,喜藏匿于茂密灌丛中活动、鸣叫.4月中旬进入繁殖期后雄鸟占区鸣唱逐渐增加,5月中旬占区鸣唱达到高峰,5月下旬逐渐减少,进入育雏期.在山顶茂密方竹丛中找到1巢,对其进行了2个全天观察,雌、雄鸟共同喂雏,亲鸟均会暖雏,但雄鸟暖雏较雌鸟少.亲鸟吃掉幼鸟粪便及食物残渣,以保持巢的清洁.亲鸟喂给幼鸟食物以昆虫和小型蛾类为主,在巢期为15天.     

云南思茅红头咬鹃繁殖记录

记录了云南思茅太阳河自然保护区2个红头咬鹃巢的繁殖.红头咬鹃的巢位于枯树干侧面的洞中,窝卵数2～3枚.红外相机监测记录显示,雌、雄亲鸟均参与孵卵,雄鸟白天孵卵,时间较短,雌鸟从傍晚至次日上午孵卵,时间较长.雏鸟孵出后,主要由雌鸟在巢中暖雏,雄鸟送回食物.2个巢均未繁殖成功.     

北红尾鸲繁殖习性研究

生活在徂徕山林场的北红尾鸲(Phoenicurus auroreus),筑巢前雄鸟寻选巢址,雄、雌鸟共同筑巢,筑巢材料多种,多是雌鸟衔运。每年筑巢二次,均于墙洞内,并对巢区有依恋性。巢筑完后开始产卵,每窝4—5枚。第一窝产于4—5月上旬、第二窝为6月,1986年6月见一窝产1卵而弃巢。雌鸟孵卵,孵卵期12天。雏鸟由雄、雌亲鸟共同饲育,每雏每次喂一至多种和多只昆虫。每日喂雏有三次高蜂,5—7时是一日中喂雏活动最频时刻。11天163小时喂雏1317次,雄鸟喂雏715次、雌鸟602次。12日龄喂雏192次为最多一天。12、13日龄,雌鸟每日喂雏次数多于雄鸟。     

栗喉蜂虎（Merops philippinus）繁殖生态的研究进展

栗喉蜂虎（Merops philippinus）属于蜂虎科蜂虎属鸟类,被列入《国家保护的有益的或者有重要经济、科学研究价值的陆生野生动物名录》。从栗喉蜂虎的捕食、营巢行为与巢洞特征等方面进行综述,对以往研究结果中的不同观点进行讨论,并对未来的研究进行展望和建议。由于栗喉蜂虎具有集群凿洞的营巢行为,特别有利于验证生物学中的自私牧群原理,研究不同巢位洞穴的繁殖成效随时间和空间的变化,以及揭示天敌捕食压力对栗喉蜂虎选择单独或集群营巢策略的影响。     

杂色山雀的繁殖生态

2004—2006年3—7月在辽宁省白石砬子国家级自然保护区对杂色山雀的繁殖生态进行了观察研究。结果表明:该鸟繁殖期为3—7月,筑巢地除了树洞之外,还见在墙缝、石缝、金腰燕旧巢及电柱孔洞中筑巢,筑巢主要由雌鸟完成,雄鸟从旁协助;产卵期为5～8d,日产1枚,窝卵数为(6.92±0.92)枚(n=13);产满窝卵数后即开始孵化;孵化由雌鸟单独完成,孵化期(14.00±0.00)d(n=10),坐巢时间(570.00±11.02)min.d-1(n=9)(不含夜间),平均坐巢时间(57.00±6.75)min.次-1(n=9),雄鸟担任警卫任务,孵化期较为敏感,受到干扰易弃巢;育雏期(17.50±0.58)d(n=4),由雌雄鸟共同喂雏,雏鸟出飞后先是在亲鸟的带领下在巢周活动,之后活动范围逐渐扩展,2～3d后基本离开巢区。     

一对人工巢箱内繁殖的白眉姬鹟育雏习性研究

2011年6月10～24日,在北京松山自然保护区采用全日观察法,对在游览道路旁的人工巢箱内繁殖的1对白眉姬鹟的育雏行为及其栖息地环境条件进行了系统观察与数据采集.结果显示育雏前期和后期雌雄鸟日喂食次数及各时段雌雄鸟进出巢的平均次数均有一定差异,白眉姬鹟在育雏过程中雌鸟喂食次数随雏鸟生长而增加,雄鸟则无明显变化.游客及人为干扰对雌雄鸟出入巢穴均有一定影响,雌鸟较之雄鸟更为胆怯和谨慎.表明白眉姬鹟雌雄鸟在育雏中的行为存在分工和差异.     

一窝三趾啄木鸟雏鸟的死亡事件与双亲育幼的关系

三趾啄木鸟的夜间孵卵和抱暖通常由雄性亲鸟承担。我们使用两台数码相机同时对1个三趾啄木鸟巢口和巢室进行了监视,记录了该窝雏鸟的死亡过程。该窝1只雏鸟在孵出的第1天死亡,并在第2天被雌性亲鸟移出巢外。其余两只雏鸟连续两个晚上没有亲鸟的照料,于第9天死亡。在这个巢内,由于雄鸟未归,使得雌鸟不得不连续两个晚上照顾雏鸟;而突发的暴风雨可能是导致雄鸟回巢失败的原因[动物学报52 (2) : 410 -414 , 2006]。     

云南怒江河谷栗喉蜂虎营巢地特征

2010年4～5月,对云南省保山市怒江河谷栗喉蜂虎营巢地进行了调查。共调查营巢地18个。对巢洞深度、断崖面积、巢区面积、坡度、裸露度、断崖与水域及公路的直线距离、巢区最上巢与崖顶距离、最下巢与地面距离、海拔、坡向等11个生态因子进行了测量。通过访谈法对营巢地所在断崖的形成年限进行了调查。此外还收集巢区和非巢区土壤18份,在实验室用沉淀法测量巢区和非巢区土质含沙量。结果表明,影响栗喉蜂虎营巢地选择的主要因子依次为巢区沙土含沙量、断崖新旧、巢区面积、裸露度、最下巢与地面距离、坡度。在营巢地选择时,栗喉蜂虎主要考虑掘巢难易程度和防御天敌等方面的因素。     

食物因素对笼养褐马鸡冬季打斗行为的影响

绝大多数动物社群中都存在着等级行为[2 ,10 ] ,高等级个体在取食、交配等方面都拥有优先权 ,最终导致高等级个体具有更高的存活率和繁殖率[1,3 ,4 ,7～ 9] 。这种等级行为可以避免频繁的打斗所带来的伤害和能量消耗。但是当争夺的资源很重要时 ,低等级个体将会忍受一定程度的代价以打斗的方式去争夺资源[6] 。有关食物分布格局和饥饿状况对鸟类取食打斗行为的影响几乎还为未见报道 ,本文利用冬季集群期内的一个笼养褐马鸡(Ｃｒｏｓｓｏｐｔｉｌｏｎｍａｎｔｃｈｕｒｉｃｕｍ )人工种群 ,研究了不同食物分布格局和饥饿状况下取食和打斗行为…     

Wintering behaviour and spatial ecology of Eurasian Woodcock Scolopax rusticola in western France

The spatial ecology of wintering Eurasian Woodcocks Scolopax rusticola was investigated to determine whether hunting-free forest reserves offer adequate protection to all individuals. The analysis of movements performed by 65 radiotagged Woodcocks during three consecutive winters in Brittany revealed the existence of three types of individual strategies. During daylight hours, 34% of birds remained in a unique core area (of 1.1 ha) during January and February while 18% used several core areas successively (never came back to a previously used core) and 48% alternated between several core areas (exploratory movements around several core areas visited several times). Alternating diurnal strategies seemed to result from a lower abundance of food (earthworms), whereas this was not the case in the unique core-use strategy. The successive core-use strategy was considered as a subset of the 'unique' strategy, for which birds were forced to change sites because of a lower abundance of food after depletion. During the night, 62% of birds showed alternative core-use whereas 33% lived in a unique core and the 'successive' strategy was almost absent. As food abundance was similar in the night cores used by birds under each strategy, we discuss the reasons for the nocturnal strategies in relation to individual differences in territoriality or the ability to detect predators. Both diurnal and nocturnal strategies led most of the birds to leave the reserve, and the important use of bocage and hedges by day (by 39% of birds) and meadows at night (83% of birds used meadows on more than 70% of nights), around the protected forest, call for their inclusion in management plans around reserves.     

Variation in the feeding pattern of red foxes in relation to changes in anthropogenic resource availability in a rural habitat of western Poland

The feeding pattern of red foxes Vulpes vulpes, i.e., the composition of their diet and dietary responses to fluctuations in the abundance of common voles Microtus arvalis were compared in the periods before and after the limitation of anthropogenic food availability in a rural area in western Poland. During the winter seasons of 1996/97–2014/15, the diet of the foxes was estimated by analysing the stomach contents of individuals shot from November to March and the index of vole abundance was obtained by counting their burrow entrances. The major component of the fox diet over the entire study period was anthropogenic food (mainly, the remains of farm animals) that showed both the highest average proportion in the stomach content volume (53.4%) and the highest average frequency of occurrence in the stomachs (62.7%), whereas small mammals were the second important component (27.5% and 54.2%, respectively). The frequency of anthropogenic food decreased and the frequencies of wild ungulate carrion and other wild vertebrates (mainly birds) increased after the limitation of anthropogenic resources. The observed fluctuations in the index of vole abundance resulted in positive changes in the small mammal frequency and negative changes in the anthropogenic food frequency, but the course of these relationships did not significantly differ between the two periods. The frequency of hares in fox stomachs did not change significantly between these periods, but recently the occurrence of hares in the diet of foxes increased with vole abundance. This study indicated that the reduction of anthropogenic food availability for carnivorous mammals may result in their switching to other prey species and potentially may have a negative influence on the demography of such prey species.     

Changes in nectar concentration: how quickly do whitebellied sunbirds (Cinnyris talatala) adjust feeding patterns and food intake?

Nectarivorous birds encounter varying nectar concentrations while foraging on different food plants and must adjust their consumption to maintain constant energy intake. We determined how rapidly captive whitebellied sunbirds (Cinnyris talatala) adjust their volumetric intake and feeding patterns after changes in diet concentration. On four consecutive days, birds were fed sucrose diets alternating between a standard diet of 16% w/w and test diets of 2.5, 8.5, 16 or 30% w/w, respectively, for 1.5 h periods. Feeding events were recorded with an infrared photo-detection system and food intake and body mass were monitored continuously by electronic balances interfaced to a computer. Generally, birds demonstrated a measurable increase in feeding frequency and food intake within 10 min after a decrease in sucrose concentration. However, individuals responded differently to the most dilute diet (2.5%): while most increased their food intake, others stopped feeding for a short while, appearing to dislike this diet. Furthermore, the number and duration of feeding events increased in the first 5 min after the switch from 2.5% back to 16%, as the birds attempted to compensate for previous reduced sugar intake. Daily sugar intake was lower when birds alternated between 2.5 and 16% diets than on other test days, but birds were able to maintain body mass, presumably through behavioural adjustments.     

Characteristics of the tonic immobility reaction in young farm-reared ring-neck pheasants, common quails and grey partridges

Many species of game birds would become extinct in their natural habitat without periodical supplementation of wildlife populations with specimens bred on farms. Unfortunately either such birds do not exhibit any specific forms of behaviour which enable survival in natural environment or those forms are inappropriately developed. They include duration of tonic immobility (TI), which is often an anti-predator reaction. Pheasants, quails and partridges were subjected to assessment of the duration of TI and the number of inductions necessary to obtain TI on the 10th, 20th and 35th day of the birds’ lives. In the pheasant and quail, both the frequency of inductions equal to 1 and the duration of TI increased with age. The quails were characterised by the shortest duration of TI and the highest frequency of number of inductions above 1. In the partridges, the average frequency of TI inductions equal to 1 was the highest (more than 70% in every analyzed day). Simultaneously, the average duration of TI was long. This may indicate that these birds may have a better defence mechanism when endangered by a predator.     

Effects of predictable and unpredictable food restriction on the stress response in molting and non-molting European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

This study tested whether an ethologically relevant stressor, a three-week period of food restriction where food was unavailable for four hours a day, caused chronic stress in molting and non-molting captive European starlings. Although all birds increased weight during the Food Restriction period, only non-molting birds increased food intake. Morning baseline heart rates increased during the Food Restriction period and all birds showed a decrease in heart rate when food was absent from the cage. In non-molting birds, there were no differences in either baseline or stress-induced corticosterone (CORT) concentrations, whereas molting birds showed attenuated baseline CORT, stress-induced CORT, and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels over the Food Restriction period. Although several parameters, such as increased morning heart rate, are consistent with chronic stress, the majority of these data suggest that restricting food availability is not chronically stressful. Furthermore, making the timing of food removal less predictable by randomizing when food was removed during the day did not enhance any of the above responses, but did alter the frequency of maintenance and feeding behaviors. In conclusion, starlings appear resistant to developing symptoms of chronic stress from repeated food restriction.     

Partial albinism and natural selection in the hooded crow Corvus corone cornix

We studied the frequency of partial albinism amongst hooded crows in Norway, mostly in a population at Trondheim. A total of 3461 birds were collected from the field. About 5% of fledged young showed albinoid markings on their third right-hand primary; the frequency decreased to 2% among yearling birds and to only 1% among birds that had acquired their adult plumage. No significant difference was found in relation to sex. The partially albinoid birds were typically small-sized, both as regards their bone structure (ulna, tibia, tarsus) and feathers (wing, tail). Their feathers bore more defective markings than those of birds of normal plumage coloration. A study of the plumage of preserved specimens of hooded crows in the collections of Natural History museums in Norway also indicated that a differential mortality takes place in the wild, such albinoid birds disappearing rapidly from the population.
Experimental interchanges of eggs and hatchlings between nests indicated that the occurrence of partial albinism may be related to the feeding conditions during the nestling stage, rather than to any genetical differences. It is not known, however, whether the former was due to starvation, to an unbalanced diet, or to eating poisonous food.     

Food composition and food niche overlap of three kinds of canidae

The diets of the wolf Canis lupus, red fox Vulpes vulpes and raccoon dog Nyctereutes ussurienusis Matschie were studied in the grassland of eastern Inner Mongolia from August to October in 2007 and from March to July in 2008. Feces were collected from dens and latrines. The frequency of occurrence and the dry weight of the remains of each food item in the feces were calculated. Livestock (50.65% frequency of occurrence) constituted the bulk of the wolf diet, while small rodents (76.31% frequency of occurrence) were most frequently eaten by the foxes. Small rodents (22.69% frequency of occurrence) were important to the raccoon dogs but they also frequently consumed birds (39.81% frequency of occurrence) and insects (26.39% frequency of occurrence). The wolf was the most omnivorous and the red fox was the least omnivorous of these three kinds of canidae according to the diversity index. The food niches of the wolf and the red fox overlapped more than that of the raccoon dog and other species. These three kinds of canidae shared many resources and consequently competition occurred to them. However, their diets also differed to some extent which helped them to avoid competition. Furthermore, raccoon dogs were dormant in winter when food was scarce, which may be the reason why all these species could coexist in a rather unproductive grassland.     

Food composition and food niche overlap of three kinds of canidae

The diets of the wolf Canis lupus, red fox Vulpes vulpes and raccoon dog Nyctereutes ussurienusis Matschie were studied in the grassland of eastern Inner Mongolia from August to October in 2007 and from March to July in 2008. Feces were collected from dens and latrines. The frequency of occurrence and the dry weight of the remains of each food item in the feces were calculated. Livestock (50.65% frequency of occurrence) constituted the bulk of the wolf diet, while small rodents (76.31% frequency of occurrence) were most frequently eaten by the foxes. Small rodents (22.69% frequency of occurrence) were important to the raccoon dogs but they also frequently consumed birds (39.81% frequency of occurrence) and insects (26.39% frequency of occurrence). The wolf was the most omnivorous and the red fox was the least omnivorous of these three kinds of canidae according to the diversity index. The food niches of the wolf and the red fox overlapped more than that of the raccoon dog and other species. These three kinds of canidae shared many resources and consequently competition occurred to them. However, their diets also differed to some extent which helped them to avoid competition. Furthermore, raccoon dogs were dormant in winter when food was scarce, which may be the reason why all these species could coexist in a rather unproductive grassland.     

Effects of insect damage on photosynthesis,transpiration and SO2 uptake by sycamore

Summary The bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.), is the dominant plant in the field layer of many boreal forests in northern Sweden. It is utilized by several herbivorous insect larvae as food (i.e. Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Tortricidae and Hymenoptera: Symphyta). Total density of insect larvae was 63% lower where birds had access to larvae compared to exclosures. Larvae with a feeding behaviour which exposes them to birds (geometrids and sawflies) showed a pronounced reduction in density when exposed to bird predators. Density of larvae with a concealed feeding behaviour (tortricids) was unaffected by birds. The frequency of larval damage to bilberry annual shoots was significantly higher in areas where larval density was high due to exclusion of birds. I concluded that birds have the potential to heavily modify the interaction between bilberry and insect larvae.