A good overlap between offspring energetic requirements and availability of resources is required for successful reproduction. Accordingly, individuals from numerous species fine-tune their timing of breeding by integrating cues that predict environmental conditions during the offspring period. Besides acquiring information from their direct interaction with the environment (personal information), individuals can integrate information by observing the behaviours or performance of others (social information). The use of social information is often beneficial because the accumulated knowledge of conspecifics may represent a source of information more reliable than the intrinsically more limited personal information. However, although social information constitutes the major source of information in a wide range of contexts, studies investigating its use in the context of timing of breeding are scarce. We investigated whether black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) used social information to adjust the timing of egg-laying. We manipulated social information using a food-supplementation experiment, known to advance kittiwakes' reproductive phenology. We expected food-supplemented and unsupplemented pairs to delay and advance, respectively, their timing of laying when surrounded by a majority of neighbours from the opposite food-treatment. However, both unsupplemented and food-supplemented kittiwakes delayed egg-laying when surrounded by a higher proportion of neighbours from the opposite food-treatment. This result shows that kittiwakes use social information to time egg-laying, but that it is not used to match the seasonal peak of food availability. We suggest that when social and personal cues give contradictory environmental information, individuals may benefit from delaying laying to gather more information to make better decisions about investment into eggs. Further, we explored a potential proximate mechanism for the pattern we report. We show that baseline corticosterone, known to mediate reproductive decisions, was lower in unsupplemented females facing a higher proportion of food-supplemented neighbours. Altogether, our results suggest that to fine-tune their timing of laying, kittiwakes use complex decision-making processes in which social and personal information interplay.

成功繁殖需要后代精力旺盛的需求与资源的可利用性之间的良好重叠。因此，来自众多物种的个体通过整合预测后代环境状况的线索来微调其繁殖时机。除了从与环境的直接交互中获取信息（个人信息）外，个人还可以通过观察他人的行为或表现来整合信息（社会信息）。社会信息的使用通常是有益的，因为积累的特定知识可能比本质上受限制的个人信息更可靠。但是，尽管社会信息是在各种情况下的主要信息来源，很少有研究在繁殖时机上使用它的研究。我们调查了黑脚kittiwakes（丽莎）使用社交信息来调整产卵的时间。我们使用食物补充实验来操纵社交信息，已知该实验可提高kittiwakes的生殖物候学。我们期望在被来自相反食物处理的大多数邻居包围的情况下，补充食物和不补充食物的对分别延迟和推进它们的产蛋时间。然而，当未补充食物和补充食物的Kittiwakes都被来自相反食物处理的较高比例的邻居包围时，会延迟产卵。该结果表明，Kittiwakes使用社交信息来计时产卵，但不能用来与食物供应量的季节性高峰相匹配。我们建议，当社交和个人提示提供相互矛盾的环境信息时，个人可能会因延迟产蛋而收集更多信息，从而对卵子投资做出更好的决策而受益。此外，我们针对报告的模式探索了一种潜在的近似机制。我们表明，基线皮质酮（已知可调节生殖决策）在面临食物补充邻居比例较高的未补充雌性动物中较低。总而言之，我们的结果表明，为了更好地调整铺设时间，Kittiwakes使用了社交和个人信息相互作用的复杂决策过程。在面临更多食物补充邻居比例较高的未补充雌性动物中，这一比例较低。总而言之，我们的结果表明，为了更好地调整铺设时间，Kittiwakes使用了社交和个人信息相互作用的复杂决策过程。在面临更多食物补充邻居比例较高的未补充雌性动物中，这一比例较低。总而言之，我们的结果表明，为了更好地调整铺设时间，Kittiwakes使用了社交和个人信息相互作用的复杂决策过程。