Size matters but hunger prevails-begging and provisioning rules in blue tit families.

ABSTRACT: It is commonly observed in many bird species that dependent offspring vigorously solicit for food transfers provided by their parents. However, the likelihood of receiving food does not only depend on the parental response, but also on the degree of sibling competition, at least in species where parents raise several offspring simultaneously. To date, little is known about whether and how individual offspring adjusts its begging strategy according to the entwined effects of need, state and competitive ability of itself and its siblings. We here manipulated the hunger levels of either the two heaviest or the two lightest blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) nestlings in a short-term food deprivation experiment. Our results showed that the lightest nestlings consistently begged more than th

SUBMITTER: Fresneau N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6054862 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature