A Multi-Scale Analysis of Competition between the House Finch and House Sparrow in the Southeastern United States

McClure, Christopher J. W.; Estep, Laura K.; Hill, Geoffrey E.

doi:10.1525/cond.2011.100061

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Given that these two birds are generalist granivores, the potential interaction between these two species has been widely studied with mixed results. For instance, Cooper et al [107] found an inverse relationship between their abundances in northeastern United States, whereas McClure et al [108] demonstrated that interspecific competition between these birds in southeastern United States is not strong enough to cause changes in their spatial distributions. Our results clearly suggest aggregation of the house sparrow and the house finch during the cold-dry season of 2017, with additional non-conclusive evidence of this same phenomenon during the previous cold-dry season of 2016 (see Table 2).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

This town ain't big enough for both of us…or is it? Spatial co-occurrence between exotic and native species in an urban reserve

et al. 2019

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Exotic species pose a threat to most ecosystems because of their potential to establish negative interactions with native biota. However, exotic species can also offer resources to native species, especially within highly modified environments such as urban ecosystems. We studied 17 exotic-native pairs of species with the potential to compete with one another, or in which one of the species could offer resources to the other, in an urban ecological reserve located within Mexico City. We used two-species occupancy models to analyze the potential association between the presence of the exotic species and the spatial distribution of the native species, as well as to assess if these species tend to avoid each other (negative spatial interaction) or to co-occur more often than expected under the hypothesis of independent occurrences (positive spatial interaction). Our results revealed few cases in which the exotic species influenced occupancy of the native species, and these spatial interactions were mainly positive, indicated by the fact that the occupancy of the native species was usually higher when the exotic species was also present. Seven of the eight observed non-independent patterns of co-occurrence were evident during the dry months of the year, when resources become scarce for most species. Our results also demonstrate that the observed patterns of species co-occurrence depend on the distance to the nearest urban structure and the amount of herb, shrub, and tree cover, indicating that these habitat features influence whether native species avoid or co-occur with exotic species. Our study represents an important contribution to the understanding of temporal dynamics in the co-occurrence between exotic and native species within urban ecological reserves.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

This town ain't big enough for both of us…or is it? Spatial co-occurrence between exotic and native species in an urban reserve

et al. 2019

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“…We tested the above on the house finch and the house sparrow. These species coexist in North American cities, where they occupy similar ecological niches (Bent and Austin, 1968;Woods, 1968;Lowther and Cink, 2006), to the point that competition often occurs between them (Kalinoski, 1975;Bennett, 1990;McClure et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic Nest Materials May Increase Breeding Costs for Urban Birds

2017

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Even in socially monogamous species, sexual conflict is one reason that often promotes differences in the roles of sexes during reproduction, which may lead to one sex making a disproportionate contribution, and thus incurring disproportionate costs, at particular moments of the breeding process. In Mexico City, a number of songbird species line their nests with fibers from discarded cigarette butts, which reduce ectoparasite load but are genotoxic. As male Passer domesticus make substantial contributions to nest building whereas male Carpodacus mexicanus do not contribute to nest building, we hypothesized that the toxic effects of exposure to cigarette butts should be greater for females C. mexicanus than for conspecific males, but that there should be little or no difference in P. domesticus. As expected there was more exogenous genotoxic damage in the red-blood cells of incubating female C. mexicanus the more cigarette butts were found in their nest, and much more than in their conspecific males. Damage in males was not associated to cigarette butts; it was initially lower than in females, but it increased near fledging, together with their breeding effort. In both male and female P. domesticus, however, genotoxic damage was equally apparent and greater the more cigarette butts were in the nest. The novel use of a toxic, anthropogenic parasite repellent by urban birds may be thus asymmetrically increasing the breeding costs paid by the member of the pair most involved in nest building and incubation.

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“…Beyond changes in habitat, interactions between species can also drive changes in community composition (Tindall et al, 2007;Kath et al, 2009;McClure et al, 2011;Maron et al, 2013, Chapter 2/3 of this thesis), creating additional challenges for conservation management in urban areas (Grarock et al, 2014a). The two aggressive species, the common myna, and noisy miner, showed few significant differences in abundance across all urban sub-environments or between the invasion front and invasion source.…”

Section: Patterns Of Urban Habitat Use By Alien and Despotic Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indirect competition can occur when one species more successfully exploits a resource depriving it from another species (Human & Gordon, 1996;Petren & Case, 1996). The intensity and outcomes of such competition are important factors by which one species impacts another species' use of habitat space (Kaplan & Denno, 2007;McClure et al, 2011;Newson et al, 2011). In habitats where resources are limited, or a species is significantly more aggressive, competition can exclude species from otherwise suitable habitat (McClure et al, 2011;Fowler, 2013).…”

Section: Interspecies Interactions and Invasive Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intensity and outcomes of such competition are important factors by which one species impacts another species' use of habitat space (Kaplan & Denno, 2007;McClure et al, 2011;Newson et al, 2011). In habitats where resources are limited, or a species is significantly more aggressive, competition can exclude species from otherwise suitable habitat (McClure et al, 2011;Fowler, 2013). Despite the importance of interactions and competition for shaping communities and especially invaded communities, direct invasive-native interactions have been difficult to quantify, and the underlying drivers of competition are poorly understood at the community level (DeCesare et al, 2010;Kéfi et al, 2015).…”

Section: Interspecies Interactions and Invasive Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of habitat variability and interactions around nesting cavities in shaping urban bird communities

Rogers¹

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Aim: To examine how gradients of disturbance (invasion and urbanization) change bird community composition. Location: Eastern Australia Methods: We surveyed avian communities along gradients of invasion at landscape scales (long invaded vs. recently invaded areas) and along local gradients of urbanization (edge, open parks, and urban sub-environments) in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD), Australia. Species richness and abundance was calculated for urban sub-environments, and for long and recently invaded areas. We also examined species presence across all sites for each region to evaluate more generally whether individual species were urban exploiters, adapters or avoiders. Results: In total, across nine sites, and 27 sub-environments, we surveyed 127 species in NSW and 144 species in QLD. Most species are urban adapters making some use of some or all urban sub-environments (NSW 83, QLD 84). Edge sites had the highest number of species that did not occur in either urban or park sites (urban avoiders: NSW 23, QLD 31). The lowest richness was found in the most urban sites (urban exploiters; NSW 10, QLD 15). We found that more urban sub-environments contained fewer species, while abundance did not differ. We found little influence of invasive species in shaping urban bird communities. Across urban environments, we found that the presence of an aggressive native species and habitat structure influenced species richness within cities significantly (negative and positive relationships respectively). Main conclusions: Vegetation structure in urban habitats was found to be important for many species, even in the presence of aggressive despotic and invasive alien species. Increasing vegetation structure provides more hiding spaces for small birds in the face of abundant aggressive urban-adapted species. The majority of birds in our surveys are urban adapters such that urban conservation efforts have the opportunity to benefit diverse bird communities.

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A Multi-Scale Analysis of Competition between the House Finch and House Sparrow in the Southeastern United States

Cited by 5 publications

References 38 publications

This town ain't big enough for both of us…or is it? Spatial co-occurrence between exotic and native species in an urban reserve

This town ain't big enough for both of us…or is it? Spatial co-occurrence between exotic and native species in an urban reserve

Anthropogenic Nest Materials May Increase Breeding Costs for Urban Birds

The role of habitat variability and interactions around nesting cavities in shaping urban bird communities

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