Abstract
Successful reproduction depends on the ability of parents to defend from nest predators. Breeding birds often put their life at risk to defend their offspring from predators. Communal nest defense has been proposed as an individual benefit of group living. We tested this by experimentally exposing a short-lived avian species to a potential risk of predation. We presented decoys of both a diurnal and a nocturnal predator to barn swallows Hirundo rustica breeding solitarily and in large colonies in South-western Spain. We found clear benefits of group living compared to solitary pairs in relation to investment in individual nest defense and the capacity to deter a challenging predator. Although we did not find differences in the time needed to detect the predator, we found that the number of individuals recruited to participate in nest defense was greater for colonial breeding pairs, leading to fewer attacks per individual in comparison to solitary breeding pairs. We also found that barn swallows defended their nests more vigorously against a nocturnal predator than against a diurnal predator. Therefore, barn swallows living in groups obtained clear benefits in communal nest defense by reducing the risk, energy and time dedicated to nest defense. Colonial breeding is thus a more effective strategy for decreasing nest predation rates.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersson M, Wiklund CG, Rundgren H (1980) Parental defence of offspring: a model and an example. Anim Behav 28:536–542
Arroyo B, Mougeot F, Bretagnolle V (2001) Colonial breeding and nest defence in Montagu’s harrier (Circus pygargus). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 50:109–115
Balbontín J, Møller AP (2015) Environmental conditions during early-life accelerate the rate of senescence in a short-lived passerine bird. Ecology 96:948–959
Barker EP, Miller EJ (1994) Birds breeding in or beneath Osprey nests. Wilson Bull 106:743–750
Bartón K (2009) MuMIn: multi-model inference. R package, version 0.12.2. Available at: https://r-forge.r-project.org/projects/mumin/. Accessed 1 Mar 2020
Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker BM, Walker SC (2015) Fitting linear mixed effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw 67:1–48
Bradbury JW, Vehrencamp SL (1998) Principles of animal communication. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass
Brown CR, Brown MB (1996) Coloniality in the Cliff Swallow The Effect of Group Size on Social Behaviour. University of Chicago Press, London
Brown C, Brown B (1999) Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica). In: Poole A, Gill F (eds) The birds of North America, vol 452. Philadelphia, PA, pp 1–32
Brown CR, Brown MB (2001) Avian coloniality. Progress and problems. In: Nolan V, Thompson CF (eds) Current Ornithology, 16th edn. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, pp 1–82
Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2003) Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Springer Science & Business Media, New York, USA
Caro T (2005) Antipredator defenses in birds and mammals. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Carillo J, Aparicio JM (2001) Nest defence behaviour of the Eurasian kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) against human predators. Ethology 107:865–875
Carter GM, Legare ML, Breininger DR, Oddy DM (2007) Nocturnal nest predation: a potential obstacle to recovery of a Florida scrub-jay population. J Field Ornithol 78:390–394
Charnov EL, Krebs JR (1974) On clutch size and fitness. Ibis 116:217–219
Clermont J, Réale D, Lindsay ME, Giroux JF (2019) Plasticity, state-dependency, and individual consistency in Canada goose nest defense behavior. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 73:66
Ellis-Felege SN, Burnam JS, Palmer WE, Sisson DC, Carroll JP (2013) Fight or flight: parental decisions about predators at nests of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus). Auk 130:637–644
Gelman A (2008) Scaling regression inputs by dividing by two standard deviations. Stat Med 27:2865–2873
Grueber CE, Nakagawa S, Laws RJ, Jamieson IG (2011) Multimodel inference in ecology and evolution: challenges and solutions. J Evol Biol 24:699–711
Greig-Smith PW (1980) Parental investment in nest defence by stonechats (Saxicola torquata). Anim Behav 28:604–619
Hoogland JL, Sherman PW (1976) Advantages and disadvantages of Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia) coloniality. Ecol Monogr 46:33–58
Johnstone RA (2011) Load lightening and negotiation over offspring care in cooperative breeders. Behav Ecol 22:436–444
Knight RL, Temple SA (1986) Nest defence in the American goldfinch. Anim Behav 34:887–897
Kontiainen P, Pietia¨inen H, Huttunen K, Karell P, Kolunen H, Brommer JE (2009) Aggressive Ural owl mothers recruit more offspring. Behav Ecol 20:789–796
Kruuk H (1964) Predators and anti-predator behaviour of the Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus. Behaviour 11:1–129
Lima SL, Rattenborg NS, Lesku JA, Amlaner CJ (2005) Sleeping under the risk of predation. Anim Behav 70:723–736
Maynard Smith J, Szathmary E (1997) The major transitions in evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
Montgomerie RD, Weatherhead PJ (1988) Risks and rewards of nest defence by parent birds. Q Rev Biol 63:167–187
Møller AP (1994) Sexual selection and the barn swallow. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Møller AP, de Lope F, Saino N (2005) Reproduction and migration in relation to senescence in the barn swallow Hirundo rustica: a study of avian ‘centenarians’. Age 27:307–318
Olea L, San Miguel A (2006) The Spanish dehesa: a traditional Mediterranean silvopastoral system linking production and nature conservation. In: 21st general meeting of the european grassland federation, Badajoz. Sociedad Española para el Estudio de los Pastos (SEEP), Madrid
Perrins CM, Moss D (1975) Reproductive rates in the great tit. J Anim Ecol 44:695–706
R Core Team (2019). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/. Accessed 1 Mar 2020
Rattenborg NC, Lima SL, Amlaner CJ (1999) Half-awake to the risk of predation. Nature 397:397–398
Redmond LJ, Murphy MT, Dolan AC, Sexton K (2009) Parental investment theory and nest defense by eastern kingbirds. Wilson J Ornithol 121:1–11
Regelmann K, Curio E (1983) Determinants of brood defence in the great tit Parus major L. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 13:131–145
Reidy JL, Stake MM, Thompson FR III (2009) Nocturnal predation of females on nests: an important source of mortality for Golden-cheeked Warblers? Wilson J Ornithol 121:416–421
Rekásí J, Rózsa L, Kiss BJ (1997) Patterns in the distribution of avian lice (Phthiraptera: Amblycera, Ischnocera). J Avian Biol 28:150–156
Richards SA (2005) Testing ecological theory using the information-theoretic approach: examples and cautionary results. Ecology 86:2805–2814
Ricklefs RE (1977) On the evolution of reproductive strategies in birds: reproductive effort. Am Nat 111:453–478
Rolland C, Danchin E, de Fraipont M (1998) The evolution of coloniality in birds in relation to food, habitat, predation, and life-history traits: a comparative analysis. Am Nat 151:514–529
Rodgers JA (1987) On the antipredator advantages of colonality: a word of caution. Wilson Bull 99:269–271
Rytkönen S (2002) Nest defence in great tits Parus major: support for parental investment theory. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 52:379–384
Sachs JL, Hughes CR, Nuechterlein GL, Buitron D (2007) Evolution of coloniality in birds: a test of hypotheses with the red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisigena). Auk 124(2):628–642
Schmidt KA, Belinsky KL (2013) Voices in the dark: predation risk by owls influences dusk singing in a diurnal passerine. Behav Ecol Sociobio 67(11):1837–1843
Stearns SC (1989) Trade-offs in life-history evolution. Funct Ecol 3:259–268
Templeton CN, Greene E, Davis K (2005) Allometry of alarm calls: black-capped chickadees encode information about predator size. Science 308(5730):1934–1937
Thys B, Lambreghts Y, Pinxten R, Eens M (2019) Nest defence behavioural reaction norms: testing life-history and parental investment theory predictions. R Soc Open Sci 6:182180
Trivers RL (1972) Parental investment and sexual selection. In: Campbell B (ed) Sexual selection and the descent of man 1871–1971. Aldine, Chicago, pp 136–179
Turner AK (2006) The barn swallow. T. & A.D Poyser, London, UK
Saino N, Calza S, Ninni P, Møller AP (1999) Barn swallows trade survival against offspring condition and immunocompetence. J Anim Ecol 68:999–1009
Wiklund CG, Andersson M (1994) Natural selection of colony size in a passerine bird. J Anim Ecol 63:765–774
Williams GC (1966) Natural selection, the costs of reproduction and a refinement of Lack’s principle. Am Nat 100:687–690
Yorzinski JL, Platt ML (2012) The difference between night and day: antipredator behaviour in birds. J Ethol 30:211–218
Zammuto RM (1986) Life histories of birds: clutch size, longevity, and body mass among North American game birds. Can J Zool 64:2739–2749
Acknowledgments
We thank Juan Sangran Dávila and Borja Lora Sangran and their families for allowing us to work on their farms. Thanks also to Martin, Antonio, Fernando, and all the other staff that work on the farms. We also thank Pilar Nieto for providing us with the control and diurnal decoy and Juan José Negro for suggesting adding the little owl to the study. We are very grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their comments that helped to improve very much the original manuscript. Finally, we thank sincerely Darrelle Alexandra Moffat and John Carlos Milburn for reviewing the English style of the manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by research projects of Junta of Andalucía (P12-RNM-2144). CLC was supported by an operating grant from the Junta of Andalucía (P12-RNM-2144).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All the experiments comply with the current laws of Spain, where the experiments were performed. Methods were approved by Junta de Andalusia Local Government (25/04/2012. Ref. DGB/JS). All applicable guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
About this article
Cite this article
Balbontín, J., López-Sígler, L., Muriel, R. et al. Solitary breeding barn swallows pay a higher nest defense cost. J Ethol 38, 323–331 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-020-00654-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-020-00654-2