title: Nest predation risk influences a cavity-nesting passerine during the post-hatching care period.
abstract: Some nest predators visually assess parental activities to locate a prey nest, whereas parents modify fitness-related traits to reduce the probability of nest predation, and/or nestlings fledge early to escape the risky nest environment. Here, we experimentally tested if the parental and fledging behaviours of oriental tits (Parus minor) that bred in the nest-box varied with cavity conditions associated with nest predation risk during the nestling period. The entrance of experimental nest-boxes was enlarged to create a long-term risk soon after clutch competition. A short-term risk, using simulated playbacks with a coexisting control bird and avian nest predator sound, was simultaneously applied to the nest-boxes whether or not the long-term risk existed. We found that the parents reduced their hourly feeding trips, and the nestlings fledged early with the long-term risk, although the nest mortality of the two nest-box types was low and did not differ. While this study presents a portion of prey-predator interactions with the associated uncertainties, our results highlight that the entrance size of cavities for small hole-nesting birds may play an important role in determining their fitness-related traits depending upon the degree of perceived risk of nest predation.
authors.affiliation: Ecological Institute for Oriental Stork, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju 28173, Republic of Korea.|Department of Biology Education, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju 28178, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jongmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Education, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju 28178, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Byung-Su
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology Education, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju 28178, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Eun-Jin
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Joo
authors.affiliation: Ecological Institute for Oriental Stork, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju 28173, Republic of Korea.|Department of Biology Education, Korea National University of Education, Cheongju 28178, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Shi-Ryong
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009425:Nesting Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000502:physiology*; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012306:Risk