Incubating parents serve as visual cues to predators in Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus).

ABSTRACT: Ground-nesting birds face many challenges to reproduce successfully, with nest predation being the main cause of reproductive failure. Visual predators such as corvids and egg-eating raptors, are among the most common causes of nest failure; thus, parental strategies that reduce the risk of visual nest predation should be favored by selection. To date, most research has focused on egg crypsis without considering adult crypsis, although in natural circumstances the eggs are covered by an incubating parent most of the time. Here we use a ground-nesting shorebird, the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) as model species to experimentally test whether decoy parents influence nest predation. Using artificial nests with a male decoy, a female decoy or no decoy, we found that the presence of

SUBMITTER: Engel N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7390395 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature