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Nesting and Feeding Habits of Brown-Chested Martins in Relation to Weather Conditions

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Nesting and Feeding Habits of Brown-Chested Martins in Relation to Weather Conditions The CondorX6:30-35 0 The Cooper Ornithological Society I984 NESTING AND FEEDING HABITS OF BROWN-CHESTED MARTINS IN RELATION TO WEATHER CONDITIONS ANGELA K. TURNER ABSTRACT. -Brown-chested Martins (Phaeoprognetaperu) at Guanare, Vene- zuela, have a clutch size of 4.0 + 0.2 (SE) eggs,smaller than that reported for the Purple Martin (Progne subis),a temperate species.The eggsare incubated for 62.4% of the daylight hours; incubation periods are longer at low ambient tem- peratures. Nestling Brown-chested Martins do not lose weight near fledging; the growth rate constant is 0.284. On a biomass basis, Brown-chested Martins bring more dragonflies to the nest than reported for Purple Martins; relatively more dragonflies are brought as the nestlings grow. Cool, wet, and cloudy weather reduces feeding activity and the rate at which food is gathered by the tropical martin, as has been reported for the temperate species. Among temperate hirundines, such as Purple Guanare along the main road into the town. I Martins (Progne subis),Common House-Mar- found 22 nest-sites at or near eight bridges, tins (Deli&on urbica), and Barn Swallows(Hi- although only 12 nests were accessible.The rundo rustica), bad weather and food scarcity martins fed close to the nest-sites (within reduce the frequency of feeding visits to the roughly 1 km of them) over marsh, grassland, brood and the growth rate and survival of nest- and natural savanna devoted to cattle grazing. lings (Finlay 197 la, Rheinwald 197 1, Bryant The dominant plantswere herbaceouswith few 1975, Turner 1980). Little is known, however, trees,which were mostly under 20 m high. The about the effects of weather on related aerial ground was partially flooded in the wet season. feedersin the tropics where, in contrast to high Small areas of gallery forest extended along latitude sites(e.g., Finlay 197 la), cold weather stretchesof the rivers, but I never saw martins is not usually experienced during the breeding feeding there. season(for example, Ricklefs 197 1). Tropical I monitored the nest attendance of incubat- hirundines, however, feed less during heavy ing martins (sex unknown) at two nests (for rainfall and hot weather (Moreau 1939, Rick- eight l-h periods over two days at one nest lefs 197 1). and 18 1-h periods over seven days at the oth- My purposewas to seehow the breeding and er) and the feeding activity of adults at two feeding ecology of a hirundine is affected by other nests (one with three nestlings-for 25 variations in weather and feeding conditions 1-h periods over eight days-and a secondwith in an area of high ambient temperature. In my four nestlings-for 24 1-h periods over 10 study, the ambient temperature varied from days). Observations began when both broods 23 to 35°C whereas in Finlay’s (1971a) for were seven days old and ended when they were example, it ranged from 2 to 24°C. In this pa- 23 days old. Broods were aged by comparison per, I describethe breeding and feeding habits with weights and wing-lengths of chicks of of Brown-chested Martins (Phaeoprognetap- known age in another nest that was checked era), and compare them with published in- daily. formation concerning Purple Martins, giving I determined what the birds ate from the particular attention to the effects of weather remains (wings) of prey in droppings under a and feeding conditions. perch and in three nests.Although this method has been used in other studies of hirundines STUDY AREA AND METHODS (Bryant 1973, Waugh 1979) it was not reliable I studied Brown-chested Martins at Guanare, for determining the size of dietary items such Venezuela (9”2’N, 69”44’W, elev. 183 m) from as Lepidoptera and Odonata, because only 12 April to 7 June 198 1. The mean annual fragments of their wings remained. Hence, temperature there is 28.2”C and the annual these groups are probably under-represented rainfall is 1,465 mm. The dry seasonlasts from in my data. I also obtained food bolusesfrom November to the end of March, although some collared nestlingsin two nests (not otherwise rain falls in every month. The peak of the wet usedfor feeding studies).One brood was 7 days seasonis in July (Gonzalez 1948). and the other 11 days old when bolus collec- My study sites were bridges over streams tion began;both were 23 days old when it end- and rivers roughly l-20 km southwest of ed. Collars were left in place for 24 2-h periods BROWN-CHESTED MARTINS 3 1 over 16 days. Walsh (1978) noted that small items slipped past the collar on Purple Martins more than 21 days old, but I saw no evidence of this in my study. Boluses were collected mainly in dry weather; hence, the droppings 50- may represent the overall diet of the martins better than the boluses.In order to determine m _ how much food was brought to a chick per bm unit time, I measured the time taken for the z parent to collect each bolus. E 30- I observed feeding martins on 18 days for periods of 5-l 0 min each (60 periods between 4 07:00-l l:OO, 63 between 11:30-15:00, 74 be- I o” tween 15:30-l 9:00) and recorded the habitat : and foragingheight of the birds asfollows: over 101 0; 0. PO open ground, waterside vegetation, water, or . near trees; below 5 m, 5-50 m, or above 50 , 4 12 20 28 m. I also measured food abundance at these AGE, DAYS feeding sites using a fine mesh (< 1 mm) hand FIGURE 1. Growth curves for three speciesof hirun- net to sample flying insects (80 samples over dines: open circles, Purple Martin (n = 11; Allen and Nice 23 days): 50 strokes through the air 0.1-2 m 1952); closedcircles, Gray-breastedMartin (n = 11; C. T. above ground per sample. To estimate the den- Collins, unpubl.); triangles,Brown-chested Martin (n = 3; sity of rapidly flying insects, such as dragon- this study); horizontal bars, adult weights (Finlay 197la, flies, I set up 14 100-m transectsat the same ffrench 1976, this study). sites and counted the number of flying Odo- nata within 2 m of them over a period of 3 min. 26 h of observation) of the 12 daylight hours At the beginningof each observation period, daily. The attentivenessof the incubating par- I noted the ambient temperature in the shade ent was negatively correlated with T, (r = (T,) and sunlight (T,), windstrength, rainfall -0.57, P < 0.01, 24 df). Incubation periods intensity (both rated on a scale of 1 to 5) and (between successivebouts of feeding) were 2- cloud cover. The latter was rated on a scaleof 25 min in dry (n = 29) and 2-54 min in wet 1 to 7: 1, clear sky; 2, > 0 5 25% white cloud; (n = 39) weather, but over 50% of them lasted 3, > 25 _( 50% white cloud; 4, > 50 I 75% 2- 12 min (median = 11 min). Feeding periods whitecloud; 5, > 75 I 100%whitec1oud;6, i were generally shorter, 60% being less than 8 75% grey cloud; 7, > 75% grey cloud. Values min long (median = 7 min, range l-l 8 min, of 6 or 7 occurred immediately before, during, IZ = 73). The longest period that a martin was or after it rained and such conditions are here- away from its nest was during very heavy rain. after referred to as “wet’.‘;. values between 1 Nestlings in one nest reached a peak weight and 5 denote “dry” condttions. of 36.5 k 0.61 g (n = 3, Fig. 1) at about 20 Numbers throughout the text are means + days of age; the growth rate constant, K, was 1 SE. 0.284 days-’ (calculated from Ricklefs’ [ 19671 graphical method). They came to the entrance RESULTS of the nest-hole to beg for food on day 18 and left the nest at approximately four weeks of BREEDING BIOLOGY age. Fledging successwas 7 1% ( 10 of 14 nest- I found 2 nests in dead trees and 20 in holes lings fledged from six nests). in bridges. Five bridges had a single nest, two had three nests and only one (with 16 appar- FEEDING ECOLOGY ently suitable holes) had four active nests. On a numerical basis, Isoptera were the main Adults frequently fought at entrancesto holes constitutent of the adult martins’ diet, fol- when more than one nest was present at a spe- lowed by Hymenoptera and Diptera (Table 1). cific site. The mean wing-length of the food items was The mean clutch size was 4.0 ? 0.2 eggs 8.4 * 0.1 mm (n = 358). Termites and ants (range 3-5, y1 = 10). Six clutches were de- were caught mainly in wet weather and also stroyed by predators or floods; in the other formed a higher proportion of items in the four, 7 of 14 eggshatched. droppings than in the boluses. (Table 2). The The incubation period was 14-15 days. I composition of the boluses indicates that the saw only one member of each pair incubating. chicks’ diet consistedof (1) significantly (P < The eggswere covered for 62.4 * 2.6% (n = 0.001) smaller insets in wet (48.1 f 6.6 mg, 32 ANGELA K. TURNER TABLE 1. Percentoccurrence (by numbers)ofinsect taxa TABLE 3. Correlations between the feeding ecology of in the diet of adult Purple and Brown-chestedmartins. Brown-chestedMartins, insect abundance,and weather. Brown-chested Ambient PUIpk PUIpk MZU-tlll’ telIlpWa- TaXOn Martin’ Martinb (n = 389) twe in Cloud Dependent variable sunhEht P cover P n Isoptera 0 0 62.5 Orthoptera 1.1 trace 0 Meals h-l nest- Odonata 15.1 o-1 6.7d ling-’ 0.42 0.01 -0.32 0.05 49” Hemiptera 14.6 2-28 1.6 Bolus dry Lepidoptera 9.4 o-14 1.3* weight, mg 0.16 N.S.
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