Selection of foraging habitat and nestling diet by Meadow Pipits<i>Anthus pratensis</i>breeding on intensively grazed moorland

Douglas, D.; Evans, Darren M.; Redpath, Stephen M.

doi:10.1080/00063650809461534

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In the months that follow, i.e. May and June, grass vegetation is higher, so food is not as easily accessible and detectable for Meadow Pipits (Butler & Gillings 2004, Douglas et al 2008, Vandenberghe et al 2009, and foraging mobility is restricted (Devereux et al 2006, Douglas et al 2008. We suspect that lowland meadows, which are mowed once or twice per year, provide low vegetation; in lowland and upland pastures, low vegetation is also achieved by grazing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…areas with traditional farming, have high vegetation productivity, seed and insect abundance, and thus provide food resources for many birds (Marone 1992, Verner & Purcell 1999. Meadow Pipits feed on a wide range of invertebrates, particularly tipulidae larvae (Walton 1979, Cramp 1988, Douglas et al 2008, which in turn rely on wet and stable hydrological conditions such as bogs and wet meadows. On the other hand, in upland pastures, where tipulid density is lower, cattle grazing can lead to a greater diversity and abundance of arthropods that are attracted to the dung (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The preferred habitats reflect the foraging requirements of Meadow Pipits (Douglas et al 2008). Extensively used wet meadows and pastures, i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictive mapping of Meadow Pipit density using integrated remote sensing data and an atlas of vascular plants dataset

Kosicki

Chylarecki

2013

Bird Study

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictive mapping of Meadow Pipit density using integrated remote sensing data and an atlas of vascular plants dataset

Kosicki

Chylarecki

2013

Bird Study

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“…Earlier work suggested that Meadow Pipits allocate more resources to egg production at intermediate grazing levels (Dennis et al 2005). Additionally, increased vegetation biomass might increase favorable ground-nesting conditions due to decreased nest exposure to predators (Vickery et al 2001), which could also explain why breeding pipits select areas with higher vegetation biomass amongst those with sufficient food availability (see Douglas et al 2008). Furthermore, the number of breeding pipits was also explained by an interaction between plant biomass and year, highlighting the importance of weather.…”

Section: A Grazed Trophic Cascadementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Second, we examined the relationship between the number of pipit territories, vegetation and arthropod abundance. We incorporated height CV and biomass as descriptors of vegetation characteristics relevant to pipits, as our expectation was that higher vegetation height CV and biomass would provide more favorable foraging and breeding conditions for ground-nesting pipits (Douglas et al 2008). Hence our models examined the number of pipit territories as a function of vegetation height CV, biomass, arthropod abundance, year and their interactions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cascading impacts of livestock grazing in upland ecosystems: a 10‐year experiment

et al. 2015

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Abstract. Livestock grazing is a major driver of land-use change, causing significant biodiversity loss globally. Although the short-term effects of livestock grazing on individual species are well studied, a mechanistic understanding of the long-term, cascading impacts is lacking. We manipulated livestock densities using a unique, replicated upland experiment over a 10-year period and found significant effects of grazing treatment on plant and arthropod biomass; the number of Anthus pratensis breeding bird territories; the amplitude of Microtus agrestis population cycles and the activity of a top predator, Vulpes vulpes. Lower plant biomass as a result of higher stocking densities led to cascades across trophic levels, with fewer arthropods and small mammals, the latter affecting predator activity. Breeding bird territories were a function of arthropod abundance and vegetation structure heterogeneity. Our results provide a novel food-web analysis in a grazing experiment to provide a mechanistic understanding of how foodwebs in upland ecosystems respond to long-term livestock grazing pressure, with consequences for management.

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All you can eat: is food supply unlimited in a colonially breeding bird?

Hoi

Krištofík

Darolová

2015

Ecology and Evolution

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Food availability is generally considered to determine breeding site selection and therefore plays an important role in hypotheses explaining the evolution of colony formation. Hypotheses trying to explain why birds join a colony usually assume that food is not limited, whereas those explaining variation in colony size suggest that food is under constraint. In this study, we investigate the composition and amount of food items not eaten by the nestlings and found in nest burrows of colonially nesting European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster). We aimed to determine whether this unconsumed food is an indicator of unlimited food supply, the result of mistakes during food transfer between parents and chicks or foraging selectivity of chicks. Therefore, we investigated the amount of dropped food for each nest in relation to reproductive performance and parameters reflecting parental quality. Our data suggest that parents carry more food to the nest than chicks can eat and, hence, food is not limited. This assumption is supported by the facts that there is a positive relationship between dropped food found in a nest and the number of fledglings, nestling age, and chick health condition and that the amount of dropped food is independent of colony size. There is variation in the amount of dropped food within colonies, suggesting that parent foraging efficiency may also be an important determinant. Pairs nesting in the center of a colony performed better than those nesting on the edge, which supports the assumption that quality differences between parents are important as well. However, dropped food cannot be used as an indicator of local food availability as (1) within-colony variation in dropped food is larger than between colony variation and, (2) the average amount of dropped food is not related to colony size.

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Selection of foraging habitat and nestling diet by Meadow PipitsAnthus pratensisbreeding on intensively grazed moorland

Cited by 21 publications

References 20 publications

Predictive mapping of Meadow Pipit density using integrated remote sensing data and an atlas of vascular plants dataset

Predictive mapping of Meadow Pipit density using integrated remote sensing data and an atlas of vascular plants dataset

The cascading impacts of livestock grazing in upland ecosystems: a 10‐year experiment

All you can eat: is food supply unlimited in a colonially breeding bird?

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