Breeding biology of two sympatric Aegithalos tits with helpers at the nest

Li, Jianqiang; Lv, Lei; Wang, Yong; Xi, Bo; Zhang, Zhengwang

doi:10.1007/s10336-011-0740-z

Cited by 21 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Helpers of silver‐throated tits are usually male and occur at the provision stage (Li et al. ); most helpers are failed breeders and approximately two‐thirds of them are related ( r > 0.25) to one of the assisted parents (J. Li, unpublished data), which is similar to the situation in the long‐tailed tits (Gaston ; Hatchwell & Russell ; Russell & Hatchwell ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…The cooperative breeding behavior of the silver‐throated tits was only recently reported (Li et al. ). Helpers of silver‐throated tits are usually male and occur at the provision stage (Li et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…First, although silver‐throated tits are not colonial nesters, the average distance between two nearest adjacent nests is short (~120 m, Li et al. ). We have found that fledglings of this species have strong mobility shortly after fledging: a brood of fledglings were observed 300 m away from their nest at 2 d after fledging (J. Li, unpublished data).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Silver‐throated tits have a nestling period of 15–16 d (Fang & Ding ; Li et al. ). We conducted forced choice experiments, which are recommended for kin recognition studies (Hepper ; Komdeur & Hatchwell ), to test whether silver‐throated tit parents and helpers were able to distinguish between own and alien nestlings that approached fledging (i.e., using nestlings that were 10–14 d old).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do Parents and Helpers Discriminate between Related and Unrelated Nestlings in the Cooperative Breeding Silver‐Throated Tit?

Zhang

et al. 2013

Ethology

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When benefits exceed costs, natural selection may favor adults that develop the ability to recognize and preferentially direct care toward their own offspring to maximize their fitness. Investigations into the ability of adults to recognize offspring in offspring's early development period may help to understand when the ability of kin recognition starts to develop. In birds, studies of offspring recognition have mainly been conducted on bi‐parental breeding species, but relatively seldom on cooperative breeding species, despite that kin recognition may be of particular importance for cooperative breeders. The silver‐throated tit Aegithalos glaucogularis is a small passerine in which some nests have helpers during breeding. We tested whether silver‐throated tit parents and helpers were able to distinguish between their own and alien nestlings 2–5 d before fledging when recognition mechanisms were likely to have been developed. Through two forced choice experiments, of which one was conducted right beside the experimental nests (<0.8 m) and the other far away from the experimental nests (~6 m), we found that neither parents nor helpers discriminatively fed their own and alien nestlings, which suggested that at least during the experimental nestling age, and within the 6‐m‐radius area around the nests, they might not have the ability to recognize offspring. The possibility that silver‐throated tits use a larger area (>6 m radius) around their nests as a location‐based cue for offspring recognition, or would develop an offspring recognition ability at an older nestling age and/or even after fledging, warrants future studies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do Parents and Helpers Discriminate between Related and Unrelated Nestlings in the Cooperative Breeding Silver‐Throated Tit?

Zhang

et al. 2013

Ethology

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“…The number of recording sites for these species (not including Brownish‐flanked Bush Warbler) range from six (Blackbirds) to 19 (Hwamei and Vinous‐throated Crowtit). Males of all these species were establishing territories and engaged with attracting mates during the time of this study except for Red‐headed Tit, which were feeding nestlings (e.g., Li, Lv, Wang, Xi, & Zhang,).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dawn singing of the Brownish‐flanked Bush Warbler influences dawn chorusing in a bird community

et al. 2018

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Despite numerous studies on the function of the avian dawn chorus, few studies have examined whether dawn singing may influence the singing of other species. Here, we built on our previous study which found male Brownish‐flanked Bush Warblers (Horornis fortipes) increase their dawn singing intensity after conspecific playback on the previous day. We reanalyzed those recordings to quantify the start of dawn singing in other nine sympatric songbird species. Ranking‐scaling analyses identified a distinctive sequential pattern of dawn singing among these bird species between the first and the second dawn chorus, and meta‐analysis showed a significant trend to singing earlier in the bird community accompanied by the increase in dawn singing intensity in Brownish‐flanked Bush Warbler. Species with songs most similar to that of the Brownish‐flanked Bush Warbler and species that were phylogenetically distantly related to the Brownish‐flanked Bush Warbler showed a greater shift in the onset of dawn singing. Our study is one of the few studies showing how bird song influences heterospecific singing, and this may influence the temporal organization of song activity in the community, and result in synchronization in singing activities among different species, such as singing in dawn and dusk chorus.

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Genetic drift and bottleneck do not influence diversity in Toll‐like receptor genes at a small spatial scale in a Himalayan passerine

Nandakumar

Ishtiaq

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Breeding biology of two sympatric Aegithalos tits with helpers at the nest

Cited by 21 publications

References 54 publications

Do Parents and Helpers Discriminate between Related and Unrelated Nestlings in the Cooperative Breeding Silver‐Throated Tit?

Do Parents and Helpers Discriminate between Related and Unrelated Nestlings in the Cooperative Breeding Silver‐Throated Tit?

Dawn singing of the Brownish‐flanked Bush Warbler influences dawn chorusing in a bird community

Genetic drift and bottleneck do not influence diversity in Toll‐like receptor genes at a small spatial scale in a Himalayan passerine

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