title: A recipe for postfledging survival in great tits Parus major: be large and be early (but not too much).
abstract: Survival of juveniles during the postfledging period can be markedly low, which may have major consequences on avian population dynamics. Knowing which factors operating during the nesting phase affect postfledging survival is crucial to understand avian breeding strategies. We aimed to obtain a robust set of predictors of postfledging local survival using the great tit (Parus major) as a model species. We used mark-recapture models to analyze the effect of hatching date, temperatures experienced during the nestling period, fledging size and body mass on first-year postfledging survival probability of great tit juveniles. We used data from 5192 nestlings of first clutches ringed between 1993 and 2010. Mean first-year postfledging survival probability was 15.2%, and it was lower for smaller individuals, as well as for those born in either very early or late broods. Our results stress the importance of choosing an optimum hatching period, and raising large chicks to increase first-year local survival probability in the studied population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Terrestrial Vertebrates 'Cavanilles' Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology University of Valencia Valencia Spain.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7008-5298
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Ecology Netherlands Institute of Ecology Wageningen The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Arie J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: van Noordwijk
authors.affiliation: Department of Terrestrial Vertebrates' Cavanilles' Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology University of Valencia Valencia Spain; Present address: Department of Evolutionary Ecology National Museum of Natural Sciences, CSIC José Gutiérrez Abascal 228006 Madrid Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Álvarez
authors.affiliation: Department of Terrestrial Vertebrates 'Cavanilles' Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology University of Valencia Valencia Spain.
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Barba
keywords: Breeding success; Cormack–Jolly–Seber models; fledging condition; hyperthermia; long‐term study