Influence of fine-scale habitat structure on nest-site occupancy,laying date and clutch size in Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus |
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| Institution: | 1. Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands;2. Department of Environmental Science, Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology, Behbahan, Iran;3. Institute of Avian Research, Wilhelmshaven, Germany;4. Department of Wildlife Conservation and Science, Zoos Victoria, Victoria, Australia;5. Department of Animal Behaviour, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany;1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton 08544, NJ, USA;2. Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India;3. School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA;1. Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan;2. Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan;1. CE3C – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, Departamento de Ciências Agrárias, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal;2. Department of Life, Health & Environmental Sciences, University of L''Aquila, 67100 L''Aquila, Italy;3. Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;1. College of Nature Reserve, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China;2. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China;3. Institute of Ecology, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, China |
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| Abstract: | Most birds have specific habitat requirements for breeding. The vegetation structure surrounding nest-sites is an important component of habitat quality, and can have large effects on avian breeding performance. We studied 13 years of Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus population data to determine whether characteristics of vegetation structure predict site occupancy, laying date and number of eggs laid. Measurements of vegetation structure included the density of English Oak Quercus robur, European Beech Fagus sylvatica, and other deciduous, coniferous and non-coniferous evergreen trees, within a 20-m radius of nest-boxes used for breeding. Trees were further sub-divided into specific classes of trunk circumferences to determine the densities for different maturity levels. Based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we reduced the total number of 17 measured vegetation variables to 7 main categories, which we used for further analyses. We found that the occupancy rate of sites and the number of eggs laid correlated positively with the proportion of deciduous trees and negatively with the density of coniferous trees. Laying of the first egg was advanced with a greater proportion of deciduous trees. Among deciduous trees, the English Oak appeared to be most important, as a higher density of more mature English Oak trees was associated with more frequent nest-box occupancy, a larger number of eggs laid, and an earlier laying start. Furthermore, laying started earlier and more eggs were laid in nest-boxes with higher occupancy rates. Together, these findings highlight the role of deciduous trees, particularly more mature English Oak, as important predictors of high-quality preferred habitat. These results aid in defining habitat quality and will facilitate future studies on the importance of environmental quality for breeding performance. |
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| Keywords: | Clutch size Habitat Laying date Occupancy |
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