For many birds, nest construction is a costly aspect of parental care, trading finite energetic resources between parental care and self-maintenance. For multi-brooded organisms with short breeding seasons, such as migratory passerines, repeated nest construction could be especially costly if the activity delays the onset of breeding attempts. Earlier studies on passerines that reuse nests between breeding seasons suggested that time lost to initial nest construction reduces seasonal reproductive output. However, costs associated with building new nests between breeding attempts, within the same breeding season, have largely been ignored. Here, we experimentally removed first nests, after fledging or failing, of Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe), to evaluate how the annual onset of breeding and nest construction between breeding attempts affected parental investment into second attempts. We found that first egg laying date negatively predicted the probability of second breeding attempts, but experimental treatment (first nest removal vs. control) did not. Neither first egg laying date nor treatment statistically influenced any of the reproductive traits in second breeding attempts (clutch size, nestling body condition, and nestling growth rate). We conclude that in this species, second breeding attempts are limited by the initial onset of seasonal reproduction, and not by time lost to nest construction between breeding attempts.

对于许多鸟类来说，筑巢是父母照顾的一个昂贵方面，在父母照顾和自我维持之间交换有限的能量资源。对于繁殖季节较短的多窝生物，例如迁徙雀形目，如果活动延迟了繁殖尝试的开始，重复筑巢的成本可能特别高。早期关于在繁殖季节之间重复使用巢穴的雀形目动物的研究表明，初始巢穴建造所损失的时间会降低季节性繁殖产量。然而，在同一繁殖季节内，在繁殖尝试之间建立新巢的相关成本在很大程度上被忽略了。在这里，我们实验性地移除了东部菲比斯 ( Saornis phoebe ) 的第一个巢穴，在羽化或失败后)，以评估繁殖尝试之间每年的繁殖开始和巢穴建设如何影响父母对第二次尝试的投资。我们发现第一次产卵日期对第二次繁殖尝试的可能性有负面​​预测，但实验处理（第一次巢移除与控制）没有。第一次产卵日期和处理在统计上都不会影响第二次繁殖尝试中的任何生殖特征（离合器大小、雏鸟身体状况和雏鸟生长率）。我们得出结论，在该物种中，第二次繁殖尝试受到季节性繁殖初始开始的限制，而不是在繁殖尝试之间因筑巢而损失的时间。