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Nestling and Egg Destruction by House Wrens ’

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Nestling and Egg Destruction by House Wrens ’ TheCondor91:206-207 0 The CooperOrnithological Society 1989 NESTLING AND EGG DESTRUCTION BY HOUSE WRENS ’ MICHAEL S. QUINN Department of Forest Science,855 GeneralServices Building, Universityof Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1, Canada GEOFFREYL. HOLROYD Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlif Service,4999-98 Ave., Edmonton, Alberta T6B 2X3, Canada Key words: House Wren; Troglodytesaedon; inter- The nest box where the House Wren interference ference competition: exploitation competition; nest- was recorded, was visited by the investigators twice contentdestruction. daily, once before 09:OOand again after 18:00 for 14 consecutivedays. Visits included checkingfor nest-box Competition between organismshas been describedas contents, observing the ground in the immediate vi- occurring in two general forms: exploitation compe- cinity of the box, and recording the presenceof any tition and interferencecompetition (Maurer 1984). Ex- birds at the nest box for a 0.5-hr period. The 0.5-hr ploitation competition takes place indirectly through observationswere made from an area of heavy vege- individuals usingthe same resources.The depletion of tation cover at a distance of 20 m from the nest box. resourcesis the only form of inhibition demonstrated House Wrens were color-banded for individual rec- in exploitation competition. Interference competition ognition. is manifested through direct confrontation between competingindividuals. The result of interferencecom- RESULTS petition may be the exclusionof a competing individ- DIRECT OBSERVATION ual from a resource(Ricklefs 1979). Nest-content de- struction is a form of interference competition that in Nesting activity by a pair of House Wrens was recorded small passerinesis exhibited mainly by members of in box B2W. The first of eight eggswas observed on the families Mimidae and Troglodytidae (Belles-Isles 30 May, 1986. On the morning of 5 June, a singleTree and Picman 1986). Swallow eggwas recordedin box A 1W, 30 m southwest The destruction of nest contents by House Wrens of box B2W. The box was visited at 18:30 of the same (Troglodytesaedon) has been recorded,at leastthrough day and a Tree Swallow egg was found on the ground circumstantial evidence, since the mid- 19th century approximately 0.5 m from the, now empty, box. The (Hill 1869, Widman 1905, Wright 1909, Creaser 1925, egg was pierced with a hole that measured 2.7 mm x Sherman 1925, Weigle 1925, Kendeigh 1941). Belles- 2.5 mm. The contentsofthe egghad not been removed. Isles and Picman (1986) determined experimentally A Tree Swallow egg was found pierced and ejected that all of 38 unmated male House Wrens peckedeggs on eachof the 2 days following the original observation presentedto them. The same study also presentedevi- at box Al W. The next morning the male House Wren dence for the occurrence of similar behavior by fe- from box B2W was observedto leave the Tree Swallow males. The presentpaper describesobservations of the box (A 1W) and drop an egg where the previous three destructionof the contents of a Tree Swallow (Tachy- had been found. The Tree Swallow laid a fifth egg on cineta bicolor)nest by a male House Wren. Evidence 9 June and both the male and female swallows were is also presentedwhich suggeststhat similar behavior noted at the nest box during the morning observation. is exhibited by House Wrens conspecificallyas well as The fifth egg was found pierced and ejected on the towards other noncavity nesters. evening observation and the Tree Swallow pair was not seenin the area again. During the 6 June to 9 June METHODS observation period the male House Wren from box The observation took place 72 km east of Edmonton, B2W was observed singingwithin 5 m of box A 1W a Alberta on the southeast shore of Beaverhill Lake total of seven times. The female wren from box B2W (53”24’N, 112”31’W). The study area contained 208 completed laying a clutch of eight eggson 7 June and nest boxes distributed evenly between two habitats: a was incubating until 19 June. willow (Salix sp.) wetland, and a poplar (Popuh bal- The male House Wren from B2W was seencarrying samifera, P. tremuloides)forest. The nest boxes were nesting material to box A 1W during the observations 25 cm deep and 13 cm wide, with a 3.8-cm diameter on 10-12 June. On the morning of 13 June another hole. The distance between the boxes was 30 m and female House Wren laid an egg in AIW. The male the boxes were erected 1.2 m above ground level. House Wren was observed feeding both females while they were incubatingtheir respectiveclutches, and both broods once they had hatched. A total of 13 young ’ ’ Received 23 March 1988. Final acceptance24 Oc- were fledged, sevenfrom box B2W and six from A 1W. tober 1988. The time of overlap between the two incubation pe- SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 201 riods was 1 day, while the overlap between the two case, the House Wren is removing the threat of ex- nestling stageswas 3 days. ploitation competition with the use of interference competition. The food hypothesis assumesthat food INDIRECT OBSERVATION is limiting and that there is overlap in the food-item House Wrens in the observation area were suspected selection by the species involved. Both of these as- of being engagedin intraspecificnest-content destruc- sumptions lack quantitative data at present. tion. Egg breakage was never directly observed, but An alternative explanation for the aggressivebehav- House Wren eggswere found pierced and ejected with ior of House Wrens towards nests not built in cavities the same characteristicsof those recorded at the Tree is that the behavior may be a fixed responsestimulated Swallow box Al W. There were nine suchcases of sus- by the calls of nestlingsnot identified as offspring, re- pected interference competition but none of the nine gardlessof circumstance.In this instance,the behavior resulted in the boxes being taken over for subsequent need not servea function in reducingexploitative com- polygynousmating. In addition, there were three rec- petition, but may be incidental in that it is misplaced ords of suspectedHouse Wren inflicted mortality on towards open-topped nesters. However, this explana- conspecificbroods of nestlings3,4, and 12 days of age. tion does not account for the breakageof eggsbefore The attackednestlings exhibited pecking wounds mainly any nestlingshave hatched. Further information is re- in the area of the head and neck. Decapitation was quired to determine what cues elicit the destructive recorded in at least one nestling in each case. In two responsefrom House Wrens. instances,young were found on the ground in front of the nest box. There were no further nesting attempts The Natural Science and Enaineering Research in the boxes where the mortality had occurred. Council of Canada supportedthis work with a research Interspecific interferencecompetition in the form of award to Quinn. The cooperationof the Beaverhill Bird egg destructionwas also suspectedas having occurred Observatory was much appreciated. We would like to between House Wrens and several noncavity-nesting thank R. Edwards, S. J. Hannon, and W. M. Samuel birds. The evidence for the suspicionwas the presence for providing useful criticism of this manuscript. of pierced eggsthat displayed the same characteristics LITERATURE CITED as those pierced and ejected at the Tree Swallow nest. Broken eggswere found at nests of Least Flycatchers BELLES-ISLES,J. C., ANDJ. PICMAN. 1986. HouseWren (Empidonax minimus, two cases),Clay-colored Spar- nest destroyingbehavior. Condor 88:190-193. rows (Spizella padilla, two cases), and an American CREASER,C. W. 1925. The egg-destroyingactivity of Robin (Turdus migratorius,one case).The observation the House Wren in relation to territory control. area was not systematicallysearched for the presence Bird-Lore 27:163-167. of open nests,but recorded upon chancelocation. The HILL, M. S. 1869. The House Wren. Am. Nat. 3:49. number of nests found for each of the above species HOLROYD,G. L. 1975. Nest site availability as a fac- was 2, 11, and 8 respectively. tor limiting the population size of swallows. Can. Field-Nat. 89:60-64. DISCUSSION KENDEIGH,S. C. 1941. Territorial and mating be- The House Wren, as a secondarycavity-nester, lacks havior of the House Wren. Illinois Biol. Monogr. the morphologicaladaptations needed to excavatecav- 3:1-120. ities. The primary factor limiting the number of sec- MAURER,B. A. 1984. Interference and exploitation ondary cavity-nestersis thought to be the availability in bird communities. Wilson Bull. 96:38-395. ofnest sites(von Haartman 1957, Holroyd 1975, Min- MINOT, E. O., ANDC. M. PERRINS.1986. Interspecific ot and Perrins 1986). The behavior of eggdestruction interference competition: nest sites for Blue and may have evolved as a form of interference competi- Great tits. J. Anim. Ecol. 55:331-350. tion to remove other nesting pairs and obtain more RICKLEFS,R. E. 1979. Ecology.2nd ed. Chiron Press, cavities, a limited resource.In doing so, a male House New York. Wren may be able to defend more than one nest site SHERMAN,A. R. 1925. Down with House Wren box- in his territory and increase the chance of becoming es. Wilson Bull. 37:5-13. polygynous. VONHAARTMAN, L. 1957. Adaptation in hole-nesting The destructionof the contentsof open-toppednests birds. Evolution 11~339-347. cannot be explained by the need of a cavity-nesting WEIGLE,C. F. 1925. The House Wren destructive. speciesto acquireanother nest site. Creaser(1925) sug- Bird-Lore 27: 170. gested that food may be a limiting factor of House WIDMAN, 0. 1905. From St. Louis, MO. Bird-Lore Wren breedingdensity. The destructionof open-topped 7:17-18. nestsmay remove competitorsin an attempt to acquire WRIGHT, M. 0. 1909. The House Wren. Bird-Lore a greater portion of the insect food resource. In this 11:183-186. .
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