Stabilizing selection on blue tit fledgling mass in the presence of sparrowhawks

Abstract

Like British great tits, Belgian blue tits have a lower winter body mass when sparrowhawks are present. Since body mass affects manoeuvrability in small birds, tits may balance the risks of starvation and the risk of hawk predation by varying the amount of extra fat carried during winter. Predation pressure by sparrowhawks on young and inexperienced fledglings is at least as intense as that on the adults during winter. We therefore expected that tit fledgling body mass could also be reduced in the presence of sparrowhawks. In the years after one pair of sparrowhawks settled in a study plot, the mean body mass of blue tit fledglings was lower compared with that in years when there were no sparrowhawks. Furthermore, the shape of the curve relating juvenile survival to fledging mass changed, because the survival of the heaviest fledglings was reduced, which altered the selection differential of juvenile survival as a function of body mass from directional to stabilizing. Of seven published studies on the fledgling body mass–survival relation in tits, all three of the studies conducted in the absence of sparrowhawks showed the highest survival rates for the heaviest young, whereas in all four studies with sparrowhawks present this was no longer the case.