Effect of male provisioning on the parental behavior of female Boreal Owls Aegolius funereus

Zárybnická, Markéta; Vojar, Jiří

doi:10.1186/1810-522x-52-36

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…We also produce a video containing unique information on owl nesting. In the light of previous studies (Zárybnická ; Zárybnická & Vojar ), we confirmed that male Tengmalm's owls deliver most of the prey to the nest, while females incubate the eggs and brood nestlings. Simultaneously, male owls increased their feeding frequency with the nestling age, while the females decreased their time spent in the nest.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Smart nest box: a tool and methodology for monitoring of cavity‐dwelling animals

et al. 2015

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Summary Camera recording and video analysis have emerged as a successful non‐invasive method for collecting a wide range of biological data on many different taxa of animals. However, camera monitoring has rarely been applied to long‐term surveillance of cavity or box‐nesting species and ordinary off‐the‐shelf cameras are employed. We present methodology and data on the effectiveness of nest box monitoring using a camera system embedded in four ‘smart nest boxes’ (SNBoxes). We applied the SNBoxes to eight Tengmalm's owl (Aegolius funereus) nests in the Czech Republic during a 5‐month period in 2014. Each SNBox consisted of a pair of cameras with infrared lighting, an event detector, a radiofrequency identification reader, auxiliary sensors and a 60 Ah 12 V battery to power the whole system. All devices used were centrally managed by an embedded computer with specifically developed software. Using four SNBoxes, we observed owl nesting continually during the incubation, nestling and fledgling phases, in total 309 days, resulting in 3382 owl video events. Batteries were changed every 6·5 days. A memory of 4 GB was found sufficient to store monthly data. We identified 12 types of male and female parental activities and their timing, the diet composition and frequency of prey delivery, the manner of prey storage, the light intensity at the time of each parental activity, the temperature inside the clutch and outside the box and the duration of nestling period of each young. We also produced a video on owl nesting for the general public. The SNBox and related methodology show enormous potential as a non‐invasive tool for monitoring animals using boxes or natural cavities. The main advantage of the SNBox is the possibility to study both nocturnal and diurnal animal species and great flexibility in use of the software and hardware for different tasks. As a result, the SNBox provides an opportunity for novel insights into the breeding, roosting, hibernating, and food storage activities of a wide range of cavity‐living birds, mammals and reptiles.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Smart nest box: a tool and methodology for monitoring of cavity‐dwelling animals

et al. 2015

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“…Everyone has an opportunity to analyse basic biological data, e.g., bird activities and behaviour, including food delivery and removal of droppings, in relation to the time of day and the breeding season and also in relation to environmental conditions, such as temperature and light intensity (Fig 3). The data collected by SNBox on Tengmalm’s owl nesting have been of high enough quality to be published in more than ten scientific journals (e.g., [27–30]). The BirdsOnline project also has the potential to collaborate with research teams across geographic areas, and it can focus on variable animal taxa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Webcast of Bird Nesting as a State-of-the-Art Citizen Science

2017

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The quality of people’s knowledge of nature has always had a significant influence on their approach to wildlife and nature conservation. However, direct interactions of people with nature are greatly limited nowadays, especially because of urbanization and modern lifestyles. As a result, our isolation from the natural world has been growing. Here, we present an example of a state-of-the-art Citizen Science project with its educational, scientific, and popularizing benefits. We conclude that modern media and new forms of education offer an effective opportunity for inspiring children and others to have fun learning to act like scientists. This approach provides broad opportunities for developing the hitherto neglected educational potential of Citizen Science.

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“…However, we visited the nestboxes during a period without snow cover and so left no tracks that a potential nest predator could follow. Other failed nesting attempts were caused by nest abandonment during the incubation phase or during the nestling phase with signs of food shortage (no stored prey in the nestbox and disappearance of the youngest nestlings during regular nest visits; Zárybnická & Vojar ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect food web interactions affect predation of Tengmalm's Owls Aegolius funereus nests by Pine Martens Martes martes according to the alternative prey hypothesis

Zárybnická

Riegert

Kouba

2015

Ibis

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Although population cycles of rodents are geographically widespread and occur in a number of rodent species, higher‐order food web interactions mediated by predator–rodent dynamics have primarily been described from boreal and arctic biomes. During periods of low rodent abundance, predators may switch to alternative prey, which may affect other predators directly or indirectly. Using a long‐term dataset, we assessed the frequency of Pine Marten Martes martes predation on the nests of Tengmalm's Owl Aegolius funereus during periods of fluctuating rodent abundance in Central Europe. The number of nests predated by Pine Martens was positively correlated with the annual number of nests available. The probability of predation by Pine Martens on Tengmalm's Owl nests decreased with increasing spring abundance index of Apodemus mice, but was not related to the abundance index of Myodes and Microtus voles, pooled rodent abundance or age of the nestbox. Additionally, we found no relationship between the breeding frequency (i.e. the number of nesting attempts per nestboxes available) and an abundance index of Microtus and Myodes voles, Apodemus mice or overall rodent abundance. Our results demonstrate, for the first time in a temperate area, that during periods of low Apodemus mouse abundance, the switching response of an opportunistic mammalian predator can lead to indirect food web interactions through an increase in nest predation on a sympatric avian predator.

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Effect of male provisioning on the parental behavior of female Boreal Owls Aegolius funereus

Cited by 16 publications

References 33 publications

Smart nest box: a tool and methodology for monitoring of cavity‐dwelling animals

Smart nest box: a tool and methodology for monitoring of cavity‐dwelling animals

A Webcast of Bird Nesting as a State-of-the-Art Citizen Science

Indirect food web interactions affect predation of Tengmalm's Owls Aegolius funereus nests by Pine Martens Martes martes according to the alternative prey hypothesis

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