Cavity nesting birds show behavioural plasticity to simulated territorial intrusions in response to natural resource pulses.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the impact of two natural pulses (food and nesting resources) on intra- and inter-specific territorial behaviour of species that co-occur year-round in multi-species groups. We simulated conspecific and heterospecific territorial intrusions in two cavity-nesting species using 974 model presentations with territorial song playbacks during and after a dual resource pulse of insect (bark beetle) prey and nest cavities across 5 years in British Columbia, Canada. As beetle abundance increased, both species increased aggression toward conspecific intruders. At peak beetle abundance the (typically) subordinate generalist insectivore, mountain chickadee (Poecile gambeli), attacked model intruders more frequently than did the dominant bark insectivore, red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta c

SUBMITTER: Norris AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11920054 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature