The effects of latitude and day length on fattening strategies of wintering coal tits Periparus ater (L.): a field study and aviary experiment

Abstract

1. Cyclic daily fattening routines are very common in wintering small wild birds, and are thought to be the consequence of a trade-off between different environmental and state-dependent factors. According to theory, these trajectories should range from accelerated (i.e. mass increases exponentially towards dusk) when mass-dependent predation costs are the most important cause of mortality risk, to decelerated (i.e. the rate of mass gain is highest at dawn and decreases afterward) when starvation is the greater risk. 2. We examine if geographically separate populations of coal tits, wintering in Scotland and central Spain under contrasting photoperiods, show differences in their strategies of daily mass regulation. We describe population differences in wild birds under natural conditions, and experimentally search for interpopulation variation in diurnal body mass increase under common, manipulated, photoperiod conditions (LD 9 : 15 h vs. 7 : 17 h), controlling for temperature, food availability, predator pressure and foraging arena. 3. Winter diurnal mass gain of wild coal tits was more delayed towards the latter part of the daylight period in central Spain (i.e. the locality with longer winter days) than in Scotland. In both localities, the pattern was linked to the average mass at dawn, with mass increasing more rapidly in lighter birds. However, under the controlled photoperiod situation the pattern of daily mass gain was similar in both populations. Diurnal body mass gain was more accelerated at the end of the day, and the increase in body mass in the first hour of the day was considerably lower under the long (9 h) than under the short (7 h) photoperiod in both populations. 4. Wintering coal tits show patterns of mass gain through the day that are compatible with current theories of the costs and benefits of fat storage, with birds at lower latitudes (with longer winter days) having a greater tendency to delay mass gain until late in the day. The experimental study revealed that these patterns are plastic, with birds responding directly to the photoperiod that they experience, suggesting that they are continually making fine-scale adjustments to energy reserves on the basis of both inherent (e.g. state-dependent) and extrinsic cues.