10.5061/DRYAD.VHHMGQNSQ
Mainwaring, Mark
University of Montana
Nagy, Jenó
0000-0001-8434-4422
University of Debrecen
Hauber, Mark
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Data from: Sex-specific contributions to nest building in birds
Dryad
dataset
2021
incubation
Nest building
Nest structure
offspring provisioning
parental care
2021-03-25T00:00:00Z
2021-03-25T00:00:00Z
en
29738 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The causes and consequences of interspecific variation in sex-specific
contributions to animal parental care are relatively well understood
during pregnancy or incubation and during offspring provisioning, but
comparative patterns of sex-biased investment during nest-, den-, or other
shelter-building have been almost completely overlooked. This is
surprising because birthing shelter properties have important fitness
consequences for both parents and offspring. Here, we address this gap in
our knowledge by testing predictions concerning sex-specific contributions
to avian nest building in more than 500 species of Western Palearctic
birds in relation to the time available to breed and sex-specific
reproductive effort, whilst also examining correlates with nesting site
and nest structure. Using multivariate phylogenetic comparative and path
analysis approaches, we found that species in which females build nests
alone have shorter breeding seasons and breed at higher latitudes. In
addition, species in which females lay larger clutch sizes and incubate
eggs alone are more likely to have nests built by females alone, implying
that reproductive contributions are not traded-off between the sexes.
Finally, sex-specific nest building contributions were related to nest
site and structure, as species in which females built nests alone were
more likely to have open cup nests relative to domed nests of species in
which both parents build. Our study provides important new insights, and
generates several new questions for experimental research into the
adaptive dynamics of sex-specific contributions prior or at the onset of
breeding.
We quantified nest building contributions and several life history and
ecological traits for 521 bird species. Nest building contributions were
classified by coding the species’ descriptions in the Birds of the Western
Palearctic book series and were classified as being ‘neither’ if no birds
collected materials, ‘male’ if males build the nest alone, ‘female’ if
females build the nest alone and ‘both’ if males and females build the
nest together. Nest sites were classified as being grass/reed, ground,
ground hole/cavity, ledge, tree/bush, tree hole/cavity, wall or water.
Nest complexity/structure was classified following the approach of Hall et
al. (2013), although we added an extra ‘dome’ category to separate the
domed nests from the cup nests of species. We defined clutch sizes as the
means of the upper and lower average values of the published clutch sizes.
The sex that incubates was defined as being ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘both’.
The duration of breeding was classified as the number of months between
the first and last month of breeding. We used the mean average of the
maximum and minimum breeding ranges for measuring species' mean
breeding latitude values.
Variable names and descriptions Species - scientific name of bird species
Nest_builder - nest builder sex (both, female, male, neither) Nest_site -
nest site (grass_reed, ground, ground_hole_cavity, ledge, tree_bush,
tree_hole_cavity, wall, water) Nest_structure - nest complexity/structure
(cup, dome, no nest, platform) Clutch_size_mean - average clutch size
Incubating_sex - incubating sex (both, female, male) Length_breeding -
length of the breeding season Latitude_mean - mean breeding latitude