title: Habitat and year-to-year variation in haemoglobin concentration in nestling blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus.
abstract: Nutrition during the time spent at the nest is critical for the development of the body condition in altricial birds, including nestling blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus). Trophic conditions tend to be variable in time and space, which should influence the physiological condition of growing birds. In this paper, we consider haemoglobin concentration as a general indicator of chick physiological condition. Its variation is both consistent within broods and indicative/prognostic of survival from the moment of hatching to fledging. We show that haemoglobin concentration of nestling blue tits is on average higher in years and habitats characterised by rich abundance of caterpillars than under poor caterpillar availability. Haemoglobin seems to quite exactly reflect even relatively subtle differences in trophic conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Zoology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Łódź, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Łódź, Poland. jbanb@biol.uni.lodz.pl
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bańbura
authors.forename: Mirosława
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bańbura
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaliński
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skwarska
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Słomczyński
authors.forename: Jarosław
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wawrzyniak
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zieliński
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D017753:Ecosystem; D020387:Food Chain; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism*; D007814:Larva; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000196:embryology; D009425:Nesting Behavior; D011044:Poland; D012621:Seasons; D020308:Songbirds / Q000097:blood* / Q000254:growth & development