Breeding biology and parental care strategy of the little-known Chinese Penduline Tit (Remiz consobrinus)

Abstract

The Chinese Penduline Tit (Remiz consobrinus) is a small passerine that breeds in Northeast Asia. Despite its common appearance and its high encounter rate, the breeding biology of this species has remained largely unknown. In this paper, we describe for the first time the breeding biology and parental care system of the Chinese Penduline Tit in the coastal area of Northeast China. As a migratory species of birds, it arrives at the Liaohe Delta in late April, the males establish territories in early May, and breeding pairs build their nests from May to July. Most nest building occurs from mid-May to early June. The females produce small white eggs (egg mass, 1.0 ± 0.1 g) and a clutch size of 6.8 ± 0.6 eggs. The parental care system is complicated in Chinese Penduline Tits: uniparental care is dominant (80%) in this population, with a majority (71%) of female-only care and 9% male care for all brooding nests, together with 4% biparental care and 16% biparental desertion. Chicks hatch after 13.9 ± 1.0 days of incubation and fledge after 22.1 ± 1.0 days. The hatching success and nestling survival are 86.7 and 80.6%, respectively. Furthermore, breeding failure is 23.4%, which is commonly caused by predation and nests blown away by strong winds. Compared to other species of the Remiz genus, the Chinese Penduline Tit shows much similarity to the Eurasian Penduline Tit (Remiz pendulinus) but large differences compared to the White-crowned Penduline Tit (Remiz coronatus) with respect to breeding habitat, breeding density, nest site selection and parental care system. Moreover, the good nest attributes, relatively high nestling survival and low risk of nest failure may contribute to the prevalence of the uniparental care system in this Chinese Penduline Tit population.