Patterns of extra-territorial nest-box visits in a songbird suggest a role in extrapair mating.

ABSTRACT: Many animals make visits outside of their territory during the breeding period, but these are typically infrequent and difficult to observe. As a consequence, comprehensive data on extra-territorial movements at the population-level are scarce and the function of this behavior remains poorly understood. Using an automated nest-box visit tracking system in a wild blue tit population over six breeding seasons, we recorded all extra-territorial nest-box visits (n = 22 137) related to 1195 individual breeding attempts (761 unique individuals). Sixty-two percent of breeders made at least one extra-territorial visit between the onset of nest building and the day of fledging of their offspring, and individuals visited another nest-box on average on 11% of the days during this period. Visit

SUBMITTER: Santema P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9918859 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature