17th Annual Student Research Conference
Science
Parental Care in Breeding Eastern Bluebirds, Sialia sialis
Narissa C. Webber
Dr. Peter Goldman, Faculty Mentor
Ornithologists suspect that caring for fledglings requires less energy than caring for nestlings, and that any energetic cost spared early in a nesting season might allow for future breeding opportunities. To evaluate these hypotheses, observations of breeding Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) pairs were used to construct time budgets for which comparisons were made between care given in each stage and brood. No intersexual variation was found, but preliminary analyses indicate that parents spend significantly more time perched, while spending significantly less time flying and feeding offspring during the fledgling period.
Keywords: parental care, Eastern Bluebird, Ornithology, behavior , time budget , fledgling, nestling
Topic(s):Biology
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 47-4
Location: VH 1010
Time: 4:30