Energy Requirements of Molt in Cowbirds

Lustick, Sheldon

doi:10.2307/4083708

Cited by 54 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Moulting birds need food additional to their maintenance requirements, to meet the high protein demand of feather growth (Newton 1968) and the heightened energy consumption of an increased metabolic rate (Lustick 1970, Thompson & Boag 1976. Thus, males in moult may have had to sing less in order to spend sufficient time finding food.…”

Section: Downscale Callmentioning

confidence: 98%

Seasonal and diurnal variation in vocal behaviour of the South Island robin

Powlesland

1983

New Zealand Journal of Zoology

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The proportion of time spent by South Island robins (Petroica australis australis) of different sex, age, and status giving full song, subsong, and downscales, on a monthly and diurnal basis, is described. Females never gave full song. Males did so throughout the year, but least while moulting. Since bachelors sang significantly more than paired males, song probably functioned largely to attract females. Breeding males sang most during the pre-laying stage. From January to April adult males sang significantly more than immature males, but from May to July the reverse was true. Robins sang mainly in the early morning. Robins generally spent less than 0.5% of time during any stage of the breeding cycle giving sub-song. Outside the breeding season, males spent significantly more time giving sub-song than females, and adult males sang more than immature males. Robins in all categories gave more sub-song during the moult than afterwards. The diurnal pattern of sub-song production was bimodal. About half the downscales were followed by no obvious action from the caller or response from other robins, nor were the calls preceded by an obvious event. About 25% of the downscales were associated with interactions between members of a pair; the remainder were associated with territorial defence. Downscales probably served to maintain contact between members of a pair and to advertise possession of territory. These calls were heard rarely in the breeding season, and most frequently in April. Males gave downscales more than females, but use of downscales by both sexes was evenly distributed through the day.

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Section: Downscale Callmentioning

confidence: 98%

Seasonal and diurnal variation in vocal behaviour of the South Island robin

Powlesland

1983

New Zealand Journal of Zoology

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“…Molting increases the metabolic rates of cowbirds (Lustick 1970), but no information is available on the energy requirements of breeding in this species. Molting increases the metabolic rates of cowbirds (Lustick 1970), but no information is available on the energy requirements of breeding in this species.…”

Section: Body Weight and Body Fatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies (Lustick 1969(Lustick , 1970 on Brown-headed Cowbirds in California permit us to make these comparisons. Another possible strategy might be to remain in a condition of near-readiness to breed through the year, or conversely to breed only for a few weeks, when the foster species that most successfully rear the young cowbirds are nesting.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Breeding Season of a Parasitic Bird, the Brown-Headed Cowbird, in Central California

Payne

1973

The Condor

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“…Since feathers are renewing gradually during moult, we assume that the flight ability of a moulting bird increases as moult progresses (see the electronic supplementary material, appendix A.1, equation (A.3)). The synthesis of new flight feathers during moult requires an amount of energy, D m (F), per week (Lustick 1970;Lindström et al 1993b; see the electronic supplementary material, appendix A.4 (A.12)).…”

Section: (A) Feathers and Moultmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence, moult, the regular replacement of feathers, has evolved into a major event in avian life histories. Moult is costly in terms of energy (Lustick 1970;Lindström et al 1993b;Murphy 1996) and time (Jenni & Winkler 1994) and may be in conflict with other activities such as reproduction and migration ( Nilsson & Svensson 1996;). Long-distance avian migrants often make use of highly productive, but short, high-latitude summers for reproduction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal moult strategies in migratory birds

Barta

McNamara

Houston

et al. 2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

146

187

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Avian migration, which involves billions of birds flying vast distances, is known to influence all aspects of avian life. Here we investigate how birds fit moult into an annual cycle determined by the need to migrate. Large variation exists in moulting patterns in relation to migration: for instance, moult can occur after breeding in the summer or after arrival in the wintering quarters. Here we use an optimal annual routine model to investigate why this variation exists. The modelled bird's decisions depend on the time of year, its energy reserves, breeding status, experience, flight feather quality and location. Our results suggest that the temporal and spatial variations in food are an important influence on a migratory bird's annual cycle. Summer moult occurs when food has a high peak on the breeding site in the summer, but it is less seasonal elsewhere. Winter moult occurs if there is a short period of high food availability in summer and a strong winter peak at different locations (i.e. the food is very seasonal but in opposite phase on these areas). This finding might explain why only long-distance migrants have a winter moult.

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Energy Requirements of Molt in Cowbirds

Cited by 54 publications

References 6 publications

Seasonal and diurnal variation in vocal behaviour of the South Island robin

Seasonal and diurnal variation in vocal behaviour of the South Island robin

The Breeding Season of a Parasitic Bird, the Brown-Headed Cowbird, in Central California

Optimal moult strategies in migratory birds

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