Experimental food supplementation increases reproductive effort in the Variable Antshrike in subtropical Brazil.

ABSTRACT: Food limitation may interact with nest predation and influence nesting patterns, such as breeding season length and renesting intervals. If so, reproductive effort should change with food availability. Thus, when food is limited, birds should have fewer attempts and shorter seasons than when food is not limiting. Here we experimentally test that increased food availability results in increased reproductive effort in a fragmented landscape in the Variable Antshrike (Thamnophilus caerulescens) in southern Brazil. We followed nesting pairs in a naturally fragmented habitat and experimentally supplemented food for half of those pairs. Birds were seen, but evidence of nesting was never found in two small fragments, even though these fragments were larger than individual territories. Pair

SUBMITTER: Roper JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6225833 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature