Breeding biology of Tyrannus melancholicus (Aves: Tyrannidae) in a restinga reserve of southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Existing knowledge of the breeding success and life history characteristics of most Neotropical bird species is scarce. Here, we help fill this gap by analyzing aspects of the breeding biology of the Tropical Kingbird Tyrannusmelancholicus (Vieillot, 1819), which is a good model for this kind of study as it is a common species occurring in various environments, including urban areas, but little is known about its life history. We provide results concerning the breeding period, clutch size, incubation and nestling periods, description of nests, eggs and nestlings, and the plants used for nest sites by this species. Fifty-four nests were monitored over two seasons (2012–2014) in a protected area in southeastern Brazil. Nesting began at the end of the dry season and the beginning of the rainy season. The frequency of active nests varied according to variations in rainfall for each breeding season analyzed. The means and standard deviations of the incubation period (14.2 ± 1.9 days), nestling period (15.1 ± 0.8 days) and clutch size (2.5 ± 0.7 eggs) were similar to values reported for other Neotropical passerines. Twenty-one plant species used as nest trees and for the construction of the nests were identified. The results show that T.melancholicus is not highly selective when choosing plant species used for nest construction.

Multiple nesting attempts and long breeding seasons of Mimus gilvus (Aves: Mimidae) in southeastern Brazil

“…The breeding period of the Tropical Mockingbird began a few days before the onset of the rainy season in our study region, and the first fledglings left the nest at the beginning of this season. The relationship between rainfall and the nesting period has been shown by several studies of tropical species in most tropical biomes (Cruz and Andrews 1989, Aguilar and Marini 2007, Marini et al 2012, Daros et al 2018. The influence of the rainfall regimen on the breeding period of tropical species is secondarily related to the cascade effects that it triggers, for example, in the abundance of food (Boag and Grant 1984, Sick 1997, Langen and Berg 2016.…”