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Portrait of Henrik Smith. Photo.

Henrik Smith

Professor

Portrait of Henrik Smith. Photo.

Development and maintenance of nestling size hierarchies in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Author

  • Thomas Ohlsson
  • Henrik G. Smith

Summary, in English

In this paper we show that nestling mass hierarchies in the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) are due to asynchronous hatching. The parents may, by starting to incubate the day the penultimate egg is laid, or earlier, affect the degree of hatching asynchrony and thereby the nestling weight hierarchy. Intra-clutch variation in egg size had no effect on nestling weight hierarchies, explaining only 0.4% of the variation in nestling mass at two days of age. Nestlings kept their relative size to siblings throughout a substantial part of the nestling period. Furthermore, the degree of variation in mass at two days of age affected the variation in mass at least until nine days. This relationship was stronger in larger broods.

Department/s

  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • Biodiversity
  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

Publishing year

1994

Language

English

Pages

448-455

Publication/Series

The Wilson Bulletin

Volume

106

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wilson Ornithological Society

Topic

  • Ecology

Status

Published

Research group

  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0043-5643