Parental Care and Clutch Sizes in North and South American Birds

The evolutionary causes of small clutch sizes in tropical and Southern Hemisphere regions are poorly understood. Alexander Skutch proposed 50 years ago that higher nest predation in the south constrains the rate at which parent birds can deliver food to young and thereby constrains clutch size by li...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2000-02, Vol.287 (5457), p.1482-1485
Main Authors: Martin, Thomas E., Martin, P. R., Olson, C. R., Heidinger, B. J., Fontaine, J. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal behavior
Animal nesting
Animal populations
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Argentina
Arizona
Autoecology
Aves
Behavior, Animal
Biological and medical sciences
Biological taxonomies
Bird nesting
Birds
Clutch size
Evolution
Feeding Behavior
Female
Food
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic mutation
Geography
Male
Maternal Behavior
North America
Paternal Behavior
Phylogeny
Predation
Predators
Predatory Behavior
Skutch, Alexander
Songbirds - physiology
South America
USA, Arizona
Vertebrata
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Summary:The evolutionary causes of small clutch sizes in tropical and Southern Hemisphere regions are poorly understood. Alexander Skutch proposed 50 years ago that higher nest predation in the south constrains the rate at which parent birds can deliver food to young and thereby constrains clutch size by limiting the number of young that parents can feed. This hypothesis for explaining differences in clutch size and parental behaviors between latitudes has remained untested. Here, a detailed study of bird species in Arizona and Argentina shows that Skutch's hypothesis explains clutch size variation within North and South America. However, neither Skutch's hypothesis nor two major alternatives explain differences between latitudes.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.287.5457.1482