title: Diversity in mixed species groups improves success in a novel feeder test in a wild songbird community.
abstract: Mixed-species groups are common and are thought to provide benefits to group members via enhanced food finding and antipredator abilities. These benefits could accrue due to larger group sizes in general but also to the diverse species composition in the groups. We tested these possibilities using a novel feeder test in a wild songbird community containing three species that varied in their dominant-subordinate status and in their nuclear-satellite roles: Carolina chickadees (Poecile carolinensis), tufted titmice (Baeolophus bicolor), and white-breasted nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis). We found that chickadees and titmice were more likely to obtain seed from the novel feeder with greater diversity of species composition in their mixed-species flocks. For successful chickadee flocks, furthermore, the latency to obtain seed from the novel feeder was shorter the more diverse their flocks were. These results in a natural setting indicate that diversity, per se, can benefit individuals in mixed-species groups in biologically meaningful contexts such as finding food in novel places.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN, USA.|Department of Ecology &Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN, USA.
authors.forename: Todd M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Freeberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology &Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Eppert
authors.affiliation: Department of Wildlife Ecology &Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville FL, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Sieving
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Lucas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000502:physiology; D044822:Biodiversity; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000502:physiology*