Sex bias in parental care is associated with brood age and fledglings’ growth rate in Western Bluebirds Sialia mexicana

Porras-Reyes, Belgica; Ancona, Sergio; Ríos-Chelén, Alejandro A.; Bautista, Amando; Montoya, Bibiana

doi:10.1007/s10336-020-01836-y

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…For example, in La Malinche National Park, during the breeding season, temperature ranges from −1 to 23 °C (Porras‐Reyes et al . 2021), whereas in the northern populations, temperature ranges from −12 °C, with rain or snowstorms, to 22 °C. Low temperatures in northern populations have been shown to produce a rise in female corticosterone levels, influencing reproductive performance and favouring the production of aggressive male offspring (similar to the effect of increased competition for nest‐sites, Potticary & Duckworth 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, competitive conditions for nest-sites vary through the range of distribution of Western Bluebirds, and this variation may influence female breeding strategies, the stimulus that triggers maternal effects and the type of maternal effects displayed. Compared with northern migrant populations, Western Bluebirds from populations of Central Mexico do not migrate latitudinally (Guinan et al 2008), and exhibit a shorter breeding season (April-June vs. April-August in Montana), with only one breeding attempt successfully completed per reproductive season (Potticary & Duckworth 2018, Porras-Reyes et al 2021. These ecological differences could influence the female's response towards competitive events and, therefore, the maternal effects on offspring phenotype that it could trigger.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…2008), and exhibit a shorter breeding season (April–June vs. April–August in Montana), with only one breeding attempt successfully completed per reproductive season (Potticary & Duckworth 2018, 2020, Porras‐Reyes et al . 2021). These ecological differences could influence the female's response towards competitive events and, therefore, the maternal effects on offspring phenotype that it could trigger.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Competitive events during nest‐building influence offspring growth and behaviour, but not testosterone deposition in the egg yolk in Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana)

Hernández

Hernandez-Martínez

Nicolás

et al. 2022

Ibis

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The environmental stressors that females face before egg‐laying, such as competition for resources, can impact the fitness prospects of the female as well as her offspring through hormone‐mediated maternal effects. In obligate secondary cavity‐nesting species, suitable nest‐holes are a limited resource, so gaining access to nest‐sites may require competition with other individuals. In the Western Bluebird Sialia mexicana, we experimentally evaluated whether female exposure to increased competition for nest cavities (reduced available nest‐holes plus exposure to a competitor's decoy and vocalizations) during the period of nest construction affects her offspring's developmental trajectory, survival probability and behaviour through an increase in the concentration of testosterone in the egg yolk. Chicks from experimental females had a lower body mass at age 3 days, followed by a faster growth rate during the rapid growth phase, a slower growth rate during the slow growth phase and larger tarsus at age 15 days (only male offspring). Additionally, experimental chicks exhibited a lower breathing rate. However, female exposure to stronger competition for nest cavities during nest construction did not affect testosterone concentration in the egg yolk. Differential testosterone deposition in yolk is therefore apparently not the underlying mechanism of the effects observed, which may be attributed to changes in females' parental behaviour triggered by competition for breeding sites.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Competitive events during nest‐building influence offspring growth and behaviour, but not testosterone deposition in the egg yolk in Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana)

Hernández

Hernandez-Martínez

Nicolás

et al. 2022

Ibis

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“…Investments that are provided directly to the offspring are known as parental care (Smiseth et al, 2012). Well-known forms of parental care include the incubation of eggs in birds (Porras-Reyes et al, 2021;Da et al, 2018), nest-and egg guarding in fish (Lindström, St. Mary, Pampoulie, 2006), and insects provisioning food for larvae (Capodeanu-Nägler et al, 2018). In primates, care for infants is particularly extensive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming Pitfalls when Estimating Variation in Parental Care: A Simulation Study

Mundry,

Dal Pesco,

Avilès de Diego

et al. 2023

Preprint

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1. Background. In many animal species, parents allocate resources to enhance offspring survival and thereby reproductive success ('parental investment'). The level of parental investment varies between species and individuals, and one critical question in behavioral ecology and evolution is to which degree variation in parental investment affects offspring development and survival. Crucially, parental investment varies with offspring age, which creates non-trivial problems for statistical analyses, specifically when sampling is incomplete or biased. 2. Methods. We conducted a simulation study to illustrate the problem when using average parental investment while not correcting for offspring age, and propose a modeling approach to correct for offspring age and sampling biases. We simulated a set of different scenarios, varying with regard to sample size, sampling scheme, and variation in parental investment. To model parent behavior as a function of offspring age, we fitted a Generalized Linear Mixed Model for each simulated data set. We included offspring age as a fixed effect and extracted the Best Linear Unbiased Predictors (BLUPs) for the random intercept of parent identity. These BLUPs represent the parental investment corrected for offspring age. Finally, we assessed how our proposed modeling approach compares to the conventional approach. 3. Results. The proposed modeling approach was clearly superior to the conventional approach. More specifically, the conventional approach clearly overestimated the variation between parents, and even diagnosed appreciable variation when there was none in the simulated data. This bias was exacerbated by incomplete or unbalanced sampling schemes. 4. Conclusion. Our simulation study clearly demonstrates the necessity of correcting for offspring age in analyses of parental investment. We strongly suggest including random slopes of offspring age within parent-offspring dyads, because doing so can reveal parent-specific trajectories of the modeled behavior against offspring age. Our approach allows for the inclusion of further categorical and continuous predictor variables that may affect parental investment, such as parity or ecological conditions. In summary, the proposed modeling approach has several advantages over conventional methods.

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Eggshell microbiome as a potential microbial reservoir in a cavity nesting bird

Campos-Cerda

Torres²,

Nava³

et al. 2022

J Ornithol

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Sex bias in parental care is associated with brood age and fledglings’ growth rate in Western Bluebirds Sialia mexicana

Cited by 3 publications

References 69 publications

Competitive events during nest‐building influence offspring growth and behaviour, but not testosterone deposition in the egg yolk in Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana)

Competitive events during nest‐building influence offspring growth and behaviour, but not testosterone deposition in the egg yolk in Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana)

Overcoming Pitfalls when Estimating Variation in Parental Care: A Simulation Study

Eggshell microbiome as a potential microbial reservoir in a cavity nesting bird

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