Mass loss in incubating Eurasian dotterel: adaptation or constraint?

Abstract

Body mass loss is frequently observed in breeding birds: whether this is an adaptive response to a change in the relative value of body stores and locomotion performance or a consequence of energetic constraint is still in debate. The male alone cares for most nests of the Eurasian dotterel Charadrius morinellus, although females assist at a proportion of nests. Energetic costs are probably high in the dotterel's arctic‐alpine environment and uniparental care restricts the foraging time available to meet these costs, so that incubating dotterel may have to fuel themselves partly using body stores. Nesting male dotterel lost 7.8% of their mass through the incubation period but were 6.8% heavier during periods of high food abundance. Males that were assisted in incubation by a female were 6.7% heavier than uniparental males. We conclude that, since dotterel were heavier when energetic constraints were lifted, mass loss through incubation was principally a consequence of energetic constraint, rather than adaptive mass optimisation.