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We quantified vigilance during feeding in the Zenaida Dove Zenaida aurita, a tropical species with stable pair‐bonds and year‐round territoriality. Both males and females decreased the proportion of time spent vigilant by 30% when feeding with their partner compared with when feeding alone. This reduction was achieved through increasing the length of inter‐scan duration, while scan duration remained...
Coastal seagrasses are declining at increasing rates worldwide, forcing herbivores previously reliant on these habitats to abandon them in search of alternative ways to fulfil their daily energy budgets. After two decades of declining seagrass abundance in Mariager Fjord, Denmark, the Svalbard breeding population of Light‐bellied Brent Geese Branta bernicla hrota has experienced substantial changes...
In Europe, the consequences of commercial plantation management for birds of conservation concern are poorly understood. The European Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus is a species of conservation concern across Europe due to population depletion through habitat loss. Pine plantation‐forest is now a key Nightjar nesting habitat, particularly in northwestern Europe, and increased understanding of foraging...
Biparental incubation is a form of cooperation between parents, but it is not conflict‐free because parents trade off incubation against other activities (e.g. self‐maintenance, mating opportunities). How parents resolve such conflict and achieve cooperation remains unknown. To understand better the potential for conflict, cooperation and the constraints on incubation behaviour, investigation of the...
Endothermic animals resident in hot, arid terrestrial environments are likely to face a trade‐off between their ability to obtain water and elevated thermoregulatory water requirements. We assessed whether daily water flux (DWF) is higher on hot days, reflecting increases in evaporative cooling demands, in an arid‐zone bird that obtains its water through food intake. We obtained measurements of DWF...
Identifying the priority habitats of endangered species is crucial to implementing effective conservation actions. We characterize the key habitats used by Bonelli's Eagle Aquila fasciata, an umbrella and flagship species that is endangered in Mediterranean countries. We radiotracked 17 breeding individuals (10 males and seven females) in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula) and used compositional analysis...
The visual fields of the Aegypiinae vultures have been shown to be adapted primarily to meet two key perceptual challenges of their obligate carrion‐feeding behaviour: scanning the ground and preventing the sun's image falling upon the retina. However, field observations have shown that foraging White‐headed Vultures Trigonoceps occipitalis are not exclusively carrion‐feeders; they are also facultative...
Ruff Philomachus pugnax staging in the Netherlands forage in agricultural grasslands, where they mainly eat earthworms (Lumbricidae). Food intake and the surface availability of earthworms were studied in dairy farmland of southwest Friesland in March–April 2011. Daily changes in earthworm availability were quantified by counting visible earthworms. No earthworms were seen on the surface during daytime,...
Significant interspecific differences in avian vision occur, even in congeneric species, and these have been correlated with differences in the perceptual challenges associated with foraging. Although diurnal raptors are assumed to be mainly visually guided in their foraging, they differ markedly in their foraging tactics and this may result in different visual demands. Among the Falconidae (Falconiformes),...
Early life is a critical phase of the life cycle of animals and is attracting increased attention because little information is available on the behaviour of young individuals during this period. Behaviour during early life is probably influenced by the environmental conditions encountered by young animals, but data on intraspecific variation between breeding sites during this crucial period of life...
Variation in prey availability can cause changes in species interactions among marine predators. Foraging theory predicts that niche breadth will expand when resources become limited, possibly leading to higher niche overlap among sympatric species; however, a species’ niche can become constrained by interactions with other similar species, resulting in an inability to shift niche breadth or position...
Drainage of wetlands and agricultural intensification has resulted in serious biodiversity loss in Europe, not least in grasslands. Consequently, many meadow birds have drastically declined, and the habitats they select for breeding currently rely on land management. However, the selection of habitats maintained by agriculture may contribute to reduced fitness and thus remain maladaptive for individuals,...
The functions of display between breeding pairs of animals have been given little attention outside of sexual selection. Yet evidence suggests that display between partners is in fact most commonly observed following mate choice, and is often just as elaborate. In many bird species, allopreening, when one member of a pair preens the other, is a major component of display both pre‐ and post‐pair formation...
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