10.5061/DRYAD.GD6555J
Mwangi, Joseph
University of Groningen
National Museum
Ndithia, Henry K.
University of Groningen
National Museum
Kentie, Rosemarie
University of Groningen
University of Oxford
Muchai, Muchane
University of Nairobi
National Museum
Tieleman, B. Irene
University of Groningen
Data from: Nest survival in year-round breeding tropical Red-capped Larks
(Calandrella cinerea) increases with higher nest abundance but decreases
with higher invertebrate availability and rainfall
Dryad
dataset
2018
nest success
Calandrella cinerea
nest predation
2018-07-09T13:25:39Z
2018-07-09T13:25:39Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.01645
55838 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Nest survival is critical to breeding in birds and plays an important role
in life-history evolution and population dynamics. Studies evaluating the
proximate factors involved in explaining nest survival and the resulting
temporal patterns are biased in favor of temperate regions. Yet, such
studies are especially pertinent to the tropics, where nest predation
rates are typically high and environmental conditions often allow for
year-round breeding. To tease apart the effects of calendar month and
year, population-level breeding activity and environmental conditions, we
studied nest survival over a 64-month period in equatorial, year-round
breeding red-capped larks Calandrella cinerea in Kenya. We show that daily
nest survival rates varied with time, but not in a predictable seasonal
fashion among months or consistently among years. We found negative
influences of flying invertebrate biomass and rain on nest survival and
higher survival of nests when nests were more abundant, which suggests
that nest predation resulted from incidental predation. Although an
increase in nest predation is often attributed to an increase in nest
predators, we suggest that in our study, it may be caused by altered
predator activity resulting from increased activity of the primary prey,
invertebrates, rather than activity of the red-capped larks. Our results
emphasize the need to conduct more studies in Afro-tropical regions
because proximate mechanisms explaining nest predation can be different in
the unpredictable and highly variable environments of the tropics compared
with the relatively predictable seasonal changes found in temperate
regions. Such studies will aid in better understanding of the
environmental influences on life-history variation and population dynamics
in birds.
Nest survival in year-round breeding tropical Red-capped LarksYear round
nest monitoring data on Red-capped Larks collected in the field between
the period 2011-2016. Also included are: (1) weather data on rain, maximum
and minimum temperature collected with a local weather station located at
the field site, (20 invertebrates biomass data sampled monthly as a proxy
for food availability and (3) nest index quantifying number of new nests
found in a month per 10 person hours of search effort as a measure on nest
abundanceNest success Red_capped lark.xlsx