Response to ‘No evidence for hibernation in rockwrens’

Abstract

We write this because we are concerned about problems with scientific rigor in a paper recently published by . The paper is based on a limited, poor-quality dataset, lacks statistical analysis, focuses on out-dated literature and makes conclusions that are not related to the data presented.The title asks whether a passerine bird, the New Zealand rockwren (Xenicus gilviventris), can hibernate. This seems reasonable given that these birds are small and largely sedentary, eat invertebrates and live at high elevation, where they apparently can nest in snow banks. However, the Introduction does not provide a coherent rationale for asking this question and, in the Results, there are no data addressing the question. Instead, much of the Introduction is devoted to Woods et al.'s (2019) evidence that an unrelated non-passerine, the common poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii), hibernates, with some discussion of a few passerines that enter shallow torpor. The rationale leading to the main question of the paper is weak and in the Introduction, the text on whether poorwills hibernate is contradictory. The argument in the