Duration of colonial bird species egg incubation

Abstract

The paper deals with one of the aspects of bird early ontogenesis biology - egg incubation duration, which was defined as the time interval between egg laying and hatching from it. The oomorphological parameters are determined taking into account the ordinal number of the laid eggs. Parameters of early ontogeny of birds are studied on the example of colonially nesting species: blackberry toadstool ( Podiceps nigricollis C.L. Brehm.) and lake gull ( Larus ridibundus L.). Within the colonial settlement of these species, the biological center and the periphery of the colony were isolated. When studying the parameters of early ontogeny of birds and oomorphological characteristics, the same number of eggs was taken into account. During field and laboratory studies it was found that the incubation of eggs lasts longer in eggs from the nests of the biological center of the colony. The first eggs are incubated longer. These features clearly manifested in the early ontogeny of the gull. The increase in the egg incubation duration occurs against the background of an increase in their mass and a decrease in the concentration of lysozyme in the protein shell of the egg. Egg incubation duration is one of the results of embryonalization as a way of evolution of ontogeny. The manifestation of the results of embryogenesis was revealed for the first eggs in the nests of the biological center of the colony. Embryonalization leads to an increase in egg incubation duration as well as to a decrease in the intensity of elimination in early ontogenesis, which affects the number of individuals breeding in the colony and, accordingly, the structure of the colonial settlement of birds.