Behavioural traits modulate the use of heterospecific social information for nest site selection: experimental evidence from a wild bird population.

ABSTRACT: The use of social information for making decisions is common but can be constrained by behavioural traits via, for example, the ability to gather information. Such constrained information use has been described in foraging habitat selection; yet it remains unexplored in the breeding habitat selection context, despite potentially strong fitness consequences. We experimentally tested whether three behavioural traits (aggressiveness, boldness and neophobia) affected the use of heterospecific social information for nest site selection in wild collared flycatchers Ficedula albicollis. Flycatchers have previously been found to copy or reject an artificial apparent preference of tits (their main competitors) for a nest site feature: they preferred nest-boxes with the same or a different fe

SUBMITTER: Morinay J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7211437 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature