The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds

Abstract Light has a significant impact on many aspects of avian biology, physiology and behaviour. An increasing number of studies show that illumination may positively influences birds’ offspring fitness by e.g. acceleration of embryo development, stimulation of skeleton growth or regulation of ci...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Paweł Podkowa, Adrian Surmacki
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f3bb5e312e484d3dbc1cb352dc0fc3f3
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:f3bb5e312e484d3dbc1cb352dc0fc3f3
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f3bb5e312e484d3dbc1cb352dc0fc3f32021-12-02T12:32:17ZThe importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds10.1038/s41598-017-01430-y2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/f3bb5e312e484d3dbc1cb352dc0fc3f32017-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01430-yhttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Light has a significant impact on many aspects of avian biology, physiology and behaviour. An increasing number of studies show that illumination may positively influences birds’ offspring fitness by e.g. acceleration of embryo development, stimulation of skeleton growth or regulation of circadian rhythm. Because nest cavities have especially low illumination, suitable light levels may be especially important for species which nest there. We may therefore expect that birds breeding in relatively dim conditions should prefer brighter nest sites and/or evolve behavioral mechanisms to secure sufficient light levels in the nest. Using nest boxes with modified internal illumination, we experimentally tested whether light regime is a cue for nest site selection of secondary cavity-nesting species. Additionally, we investigated whether nest building strategies are tuned to internal illumination. Our results demonstrate that, nest boxes with elevated illumination were chosen twice as often as dark nest boxes. Moreover, birds built higher nests in dark nest boxes than birds in boxes with elevated illumination, which suggests a mechanism of compensating for low light conditions. Our results provide the first experimental support for the idea that nest site choice and nest building behaviour in cavity-nesting birds are influenced by ambient illumination.Paweł PodkowaAdrian SurmackiNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Paweł Podkowa Adrian Surmacki The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds
description	Abstract Light has a significant impact on many aspects of avian biology, physiology and behaviour. An increasing number of studies show that illumination may positively influences birds’ offspring fitness by e.g. acceleration of embryo development, stimulation of skeleton growth or regulation of circadian rhythm. Because nest cavities have especially low illumination, suitable light levels may be especially important for species which nest there. We may therefore expect that birds breeding in relatively dim conditions should prefer brighter nest sites and/or evolve behavioral mechanisms to secure sufficient light levels in the nest. Using nest boxes with modified internal illumination, we experimentally tested whether light regime is a cue for nest site selection of secondary cavity-nesting species. Additionally, we investigated whether nest building strategies are tuned to internal illumination. Our results demonstrate that, nest boxes with elevated illumination were chosen twice as often as dark nest boxes. Moreover, birds built higher nests in dark nest boxes than birds in boxes with elevated illumination, which suggests a mechanism of compensating for low light conditions. Our results provide the first experimental support for the idea that nest site choice and nest building behaviour in cavity-nesting birds are influenced by ambient illumination.
format	article
author	Paweł Podkowa Adrian Surmacki
author_facet	Paweł Podkowa Adrian Surmacki
author_sort	Paweł Podkowa
title	The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds
title_short	The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds
title_full	The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds
title_fullStr	The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds
title_full_unstemmed	The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds
title_sort	importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/f3bb5e312e484d3dbc1cb352dc0fc3f3
work_keys_str_mv	AT pawełpodkowa theimportanceofilluminationinnestsitechoiceandnestcharacteristicsofcavitynestingbirds AT adriansurmacki theimportanceofilluminationinnestsitechoiceandnestcharacteristicsofcavitynestingbirds AT pawełpodkowa importanceofilluminationinnestsitechoiceandnestcharacteristicsofcavitynestingbirds AT adriansurmacki importanceofilluminationinnestsitechoiceandnestcharacteristicsofcavitynestingbirds
_version_	1718394131946930176

The importance of illumination in nest site choice and nest characteristics of cavity nesting birds

Ejemplares similares