Reproductive success of house sparrows along an urban gradient Kate Vincent (BSG), Will Peach...
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Transcript of Reproductive success of house sparrows along an urban gradient Kate Vincent (BSG), Will Peach...
Reproductive success of house sparrows along anurban gradient
Kate Vincent (BSG), Will Peach (RSPB), Jim Fowler (DMU) & Phil Grice (NE)
• Methodology
• Fieldwork
• Key results
• Summary of findings
Study City - Leicester
City in the middle of England
Population approx 285, 000
10th largest city in England
Methodology
• Productivity along urban gradient
(nest boxes; urban/suburban/rural)
• Investigate diet and invertebrate abundance
• Used local pollution data
Fieldwork
• 9 study sites (nest boxes/surveys)
Fieldwork
• Nestboxes used = 100 [500+ chicks ringed]
• Monthly foraging observations in 44 locations – to establish habitat use
Fieldwork
• Habitat mapping around used boxes
• Aphid abundance in home ranges
• Over-winter survival – colour-ringed adult birds
Biometrics/Nesting success
• Weight • Tarsus length• Fat score • Muscle score• Faecal samples (400+) • Colour ringing
Foraging Observations
• Does foraging change across season/area type?
• Initial visit recorded habitat type
• Made monthly visits to 44 transects
• Recorded no. of adults/juveniles and habitat
Habitat Mapping
• Compare habitat around all used boxes
• Used 13 habitat category system
• Took radius of 70m around each nest (80-100 gardens in suburbia)
Aphid abundance
• 0-50m & 50-100m from box
• selected 20 shrubs, 20 trees, 15 veg, 30 flowers
• scoring 0 to 3 (none to infested)
Key Results
• Productivity/nesting success
• Diet of nestlings
• Chick condition
Diet composition (175 samples from 2001, 2002 & 2003)
Others5%
Larvae 5%
Flies14%
Spiders11%
Ants8%
Hymenoptera2%
Aphids35%
Beetles20%
Thanks to Del Gruar for helping analyse samples
Nestling Diet
• Spiders, Aphids, Diptera & Beetles = 80% of all remains
• Beetles & Diptera prominent in April/May
• Aphids most prominent in June
• Ants most prominent in July/August
Nestling Diet
• Aphids - urban>suburban>rural broods
• Diptera - rural>suburban>urban broods
ants in broods that died plant material during July/August
& in broods that died
Productivity/nesting success
• No. fledged late summer No. fledged in home ranges with
grass/deciduous shrubs/trees & concrete.
No. fledged from broods fed a plant-dominated diet
• High rate of chick starvation in June/July
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1proportion of plant material in diet
pre
dic
ted
da
ily w
ho
le n
est
failu
re r
ate
2002 2003
= 70% : 14 day chick period I
I
I
I
I
I
= 20% : 14 day chick period
I
I
Brood survival
Suburban nests = 75% (whole nest period) Rural nests = 78%• All habitats BTO (2002) = 96.5%• Lack of food causing complete or partial brood
failure– inadequate provision of food poor quality
habitat – provision of unsuitable food nutritional
deficiency/starvation
Productivity
• Mean no. fledged per attempt– suburban = 1.98 BTO = 2.6– rural = 2.37 BTO = 2.9
• Seasonal Productivity– 4.21 young per year (suburban)– 4.67 young per year (rural)– Oxford 1990s study = 5.68
• productivity in this study is low due to high complete/partial brood failures
Chick condition
• chicks fed beetle had higher body condition indices
grass, deciduous shrubs & trees, concrete = brood biomass invert availability is sensitive to the habitat quality
around nest
NO2 levels = brood mass at fledging
post-fledging survival– fledging in polluted areas = survival disadvantage
Mean brood body mass at fledging against nitrogen dioxide in 2002 and 2003
Relative abundance of aphids within 100m of nests during June and July 2003.
Aphid scores are grouped into four reflecting low (0) to high (3) relative abundance
Summary
• No. fledging & brood biomass in home ranges with grass/deciduous shrubs/trees suggests invertebrate availability sensitive to habitat quality
fledged from broods fed a plant-dominated diet evidence linking vegetable dominated diet with complete brood failures
chick starvation during June/July not been reported before
NO2 levels = lower brood mass at fledging
Conclusions
• nestling survival rate & no. young fledging are low
• links between;– poor habitat quality/insect availability/nestling
diet/brood condition
• indicates direct effect of food limitation during the breeding season
causing productivity in suburbia
Conclusions
productivity demographic mechanism causing decline
demographic model - test if productivity levels are low enough to cause declines
incorporated suburban & rural productivity levels and known survival rates (adult, first-year, post-fledge)
showed suburban productivity is low enough to cause 10% decline p.a
A BIG THANKYOU TO • RSPB, EN & DMU • Dr Will Peach & Dr Jim Fowler• Derek Gruar (RSPB)• Phil Grice (EN)• All RSPB research assistants • CJ Wildbird Foods (nestboxes)• Householders that have nestboxes • Denis Summers-Smith• Ken Goodrich & LROS• Leicester City Council
• My website: www.katevincent.org