The impact of increased food availability on reproduction in a long-distance migratory songbird: implications for environmental change?

ABSTRACT: Many populations of migratory songbirds are declining or shifting in distribution. This is likely due to environmental changes that alter factors such as food availability that may have an impact on survival and/or breeding success. We tested the impact of experimentally supplemented food on the breeding success over three years of northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe), a species in decline over much of Europe. The number of offspring fledged over the season was higher for food-supplemented birds than for control birds. The mechanisms for this effect were that food supplementation advanced breeding date, which, together with increased resources, allowed further breeding attempts. While food supplementation did not increase the clutch size, hatching success or number of chicks fledged per

SUBMITTER: Seward AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4205087 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature