Egalitarian mixed-species bird groups enhance winter survival of subordinate group members but only in high-quality forests.

ABSTRACT: Only dominant individuals have unrestricted access to contested resources in group-living animals. In birds, subordinates with restricted access to resources may respond to intragroup contests by acquiring extra body reserves to avoid periods of food shortage. In turn, higher body mass reduces agility and increases predation and mortality risk to subordinates. Birds often live in hierarchically organized mixed-species groups, in which heterospecific individuals are considered to substitute for conspecifics as protection against predators at a significantly reduced competition cost. Crested tits (Lophophanes cristatus) and willow tits (Poecile montanus) form mixed-species groups during the non-reproductive season that typically exhibit a nearly linear dominance hierarchy ('despotic' social

SUBMITTER: Krams IA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7055219 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature