Interspecific differences in brood desertion by female diving ducks in relation to duckling age and environmental conditions

Abstract

Studies on brood desertion in birds have been mainly conducted on species with biparental care, and less often on uniparental species. Females of many duck species remain with their ducklings, unassisted by males, during variable periods of time before the chicks can fledge. In this paper, we examined factors that influence brood desertion by female red-crested pochards ( Netta rufina), common pochards ( Aythya ferina) and white-headed ducks ( Oxyura leucocephala) during a 10-year period in lakes in southern Spain that experienced interannual variations in water levels. At an interspecific level, we found that brood desertion was less frequent in the species that nested earlier (red-crested pochard), while it was more frequent in the species that nested later (white-headed duck). Larger (older) ducklings were deserted more frequently than smaller ones in the three species. However, an interaction between flooding conditions in wetlands and species identity on brood desertion, after accounting for chick age, suggests that there were variations between the ducklings of the three species in their requirements for maternal care, conditioned by environmental conditions. Therefore, our study indicates that environmental conditions may affect parental care. A longer duration of brood attendance by female ducks may buffer against adverse effects of environmental conditions.