Chick Rearing Research Articles

Behavior and Habitat Use of Two Pairs of Red-crowned Cranes during the Chick Rearing Period in Chokubetsu, Onbetsu-cho, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan

Behavior and Habitat Use of Two Pairs of Red-crowned Cranes during the Chick Rearing Period in Chokubetsu, Onbetsu-cho, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan

Characteristics of Great Bustard (Otis tarda) (Otididae, Aves) Habitats in the Trans-Volga Region according to Food Availability during the Chick Rearing Period

Characteristics of Great Bustard (Otis tarda) (Otididae, Aves) Habitats in the Trans-Volga Region according to Food Availability during the Chick Rearing Period

Habitat Use and Ranging Behaviour in Grey Partridges Perdix perdix during Chick Rearing Period in Western Poland

The decrease in chick survival has been one of the most important reasons for the decline in the abundance of Grey Partridges Perdix perdix in Europe in the recent decades. Therefore, it is important to know the habits of these birds during the period of raising chicks. The habitat use, movements and home range sizes of partridges rearing their chicks up to three weeks old were studied in western Poland in the years 1995–2001. Twenty one pairs with chicks were localized daily by radiotracking. The partridge broods mostly used cereals (54.4% of their locations), but permanent wild vegetation (19.6%) turned out to be preferred. Most locations (56.8%) took place up to 10 m from field edges. The average distance of daily movements was 160 m (range 0–890 m) and was shorter in the diversified landscape of small fields than in the simplified landscape of large fields. The area of home ranges (100% MCP) during the first three weeks of chick's life averaged 12.0 ha (range 2.9–34.1 ha) and no significant differences were found between the two field types. The size of home ranges decreased with the proportion of cereals and wild vegetation in the regions where individual broods occurred. It was concluded that large-scale crop fields create worse living conditions for Grey Partridge broods than more diverse small fields.

From incubation to release: Hand-rearing as a tool for the conservation of the endangered African penguin.

The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) population is estimated at 25,000 breeding pairs, approximately 5% of that at the start of the 20th century, and the species is currently classified as Endangered. In the last two decades, the hand-rearing of penguin chicks that were abandoned by their parents due to oil spills or other circumstances has become a valuable conservation tool to limit mortality and to bolster the population at specific colonies. We summarize and evaluate the techniques employed by the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to incubate and hand-rear African penguin eggs and chicks. From 2012 to 2016, a total of 694 eggs and 2819 chicks were received by SANCCOB’s Chick Rearing Unit. It was estimated that 13% of the eggs were infertile, and 81% of the fertile eggs hatched successfully. The overall release rate for chicks was 77%, with a higher release rate for chicks that were pre-emptively removed (93%) followed by chicks that had been abandoned by their parents (78%), chicks admitted due to avian pox lesions (61%), chicks that hatched from artificially-incubated eggs (57%), and chicks admitted due to injuries or deformities (25%). Rescuing and hand-rearing eggs and chicks has been a successful strategy for African penguins, and might be also applicable for the conservation of other threatened seabird species whose population are critically low or during natural or anthropogenic events that could have disastrous population impacts (e.g. oil spills, disease outbreaks, catastrophic weather events, strong El Niño years, etc.).

Energetic Demands During Incubation and Chick Rearing in a Uniparental and a Biparental Shorebird Breeding in the High Arctic

Rearing of young has long been considered the energetically most demanding phase of the avian breeding cycle. Arctic-breeding shorebirds expend large amounts of energy during breeding. Because they are too small to carry sufficient stores to sit out the incubation period, they regularly interrupt incubation to feed and still can run short of energy, particularly in species in which one adult takes care of the eggs and chicks alone (uniparental). We measured daily energy expenditure (DEE) and time budgets during incubation and chick rearing in the smallest uniparental Arctic shorebird, the Little Stint (Calidris minuta). Daily energy expenditure decreased with increasing temperature but did not differ between the incubation and chick-rearing periods. Because of the increase in potential foraging time from incubation to the chick-rearing phase, the foraging intake rate required to balance the budget dropped by two-thirds. To evaluate the effect of uniparental care on energy budgets, we also measured DEE in the Dunlin (C. alpina), a sympatric congener in which both parents incubate but the female deserts the brood after hatching. Daily energy expenditure decreased with temperature, was the same during incubation and chick rearing, and was higher in males. Our results are discussed in relation to the timing of breeding of Arctic shorebirds with different systems of parental care.

Diet of Common Diving-petrels (Pelecanoides urinatrix urinatrix) in Southeastern Australia During Chick Rearing

Unlike conspecifics in the subantarctic region, which typically begin breeding in mid-spring to summer, Common Diving-petrels Pelecanoides urinatrix urinatrix in southeastern Australia (towards the northern limit of the species' distribution) commence breeding mid winter. Knowledge of the foraging ecology of this species is crucial to understanding the factors that influence its timing of breeding in the region, yet there is currently little information available. Analysis of 43 stomachs of breeding adults, collected opportunistically after they were killed in a fire which burned through their colony, indicated that their diet was dominated by two taxa: a euphausiid Nyctiphanes australis which comprised 87% of the diet by number; and a hyperiid amphipod Themisto australis which constituted a further 12.5%. Mean lengths (±SE) of N. australis (n = 39) and T. australis (n = 41) were 12 mm (±0.3) and 5.2 mm (±0.2), respectively. The importance of N. australis in the diet of Common Diving-petrels is discussed in relation to their timing of breeding and the euphausiid's potential role in the Bass Strait pelagic ecosystem.

The Diet of the Magnificent Frigatebird During Chick Rearing

Abstract We describe the diet of the Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens at Isla Isabel off the Pacific coast of Mexico based on 158 regurgitates (555 prey items) from males, females, chicks, and juveniles. The diet included 50 species of fishes (21 identified to genus only), 1 species of squid, and 2 species of crustaceans. Diplectum pacificum and Anchoa lucida were the most frequent species of fish in the frigatebird's diet. No differences in prey composition or prey size were found between males and females, but females disgorged 62% more food. This difference mirrors the bigger size (15% larger than males) and larger contribution of females to chick feeding. Flying juveniles consumed prey in different proportions than the adults and disgorged marginally more food. Juveniles may obtain food in different patches than adults and complement this source with maternal feedings, or they may be more likely to regurgitate. Diet composition of males, females, and flying juveniles changed during the 4-month period of this study, but the mass of regurgitates did not change as the breeding season progressed, suggesting that availability of prey species changes over time. Most of the diet of this population probably comes from opportunistic feeding on fisheries, because the variety of fishes disgorged is remarkably similar to the published list of fishes discarded by prawn-fishing boats in the area. If our assumption is true, kleptoparasitism and direct fishing are only marginally represented in the diet of this population.

The Diet of the Magnificent Frigatebird during Chick Rearing

The Diet of the Magnificent Frigatebird during Chick Rearing

Factors Affecting Daily Activity Budgets of South Georgian Shags during Chick Rearing at Bird Island, South Georgia

Radio telemetry was used to record daily activity budgets of 26 South Georgian Shags (Phalacrocorax georgianus) during the chick-rearing period at Bird Island, South Georgia. There was a significant sex difference in the timing of feeding, with the female making the first trip of the day in 93% of pairs (n = 15). On average, each shag made 2.3 trips/day and was absent for a total of 6.22 hr/day. The majority of time away from the colony was spent diving (86.7%), but long recovery periods on the surface between dives and time needed to travel to the seabed resulted in only 1.06 hr/day being potentially available for prey capture. Given that these activity data were collected during a season when feeding conditions were favorable, breeding shags at Bird Island appear to have little capacity to increase the time available for prey capture. We speculate that the population may be extremely sensitive to changes in food availability. Males spent more time flying and on the sea than did females. On average, birds with broods of two or three chicks spent more time diving (6.42 hr/day) than those with broods of one (4.74 hr/day) but there was no tendency for the amount of time spent diving to increase with chick age. Although South Georgian Shags exhibited the same sexually distinct foraging patterns as Antarctic Shags P. bransfieldensis at a colony on the Antarctic Peninsula, their activity budgets differed radically, with shags at Bird Island spending a much greater percentage of their time away diving (86.7% compared with 8.4%)

Behavioral Ecology of Black-Legged Kittiwakes during Chick Rearing in a Failing Colony

Compared with their Atlantic counterparts, Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) in North Pacific colonies are notably unproductive. A large colony on Middleton Island, Alaska, has in most years since 1981 seen complete breeding failure and the population has declined by half. We compared parent-offspring behaviors in this colony during two years that differed in overall breeding success. Potential indicators of food stress included parental attendance at the nest, foraging trip lengths, chick feeding and begging rates, and sibling aggression. Whereas chick feeding and begging rates were strongly correlated with overall breeding performance, patterns of time allocation by adults (nest attendance and foraging trips) were not. Contrasts between years and comparisons with data from other colonies in and outside Alaska point to food shortage as the likely cause of recurrent breeding failure on Middleton.

The Effect of Radio Transmitters on the Behavior of Common Murres and Razorbills during Chick Rearing

We compared site attendance, length and number of absences from the colony, and prey delivered to the young of control Common Murres (Uria aalge) and others which carried radio transmitters that had either an external or internal aerial during chick rearing. Birds with the internal aerial behaved similarly to control birds. However, birds with the external aerial spent less time in the colony, were absent for long continuous periods, and often returned without a fish for the chick. This did not reduce fledging success because their mates compensated by increasing the food brought in. Fewer observations were made on Razorbills (Alca torda) with external aerial transmitters, but they indicated no profound effect on behavior.

Effect of Different Kinds of Litter on Growth and Feed Efficiency in Chick Rearing

THERE is little data available concerning the extent to which different kinds of clean floor litter affect the growth and feed efficiency of brooding chicks.Blount (1962) found that chicks bedded on feather meal had much improved bodyweights and feed conversion over chicks on wood shavings because of their freedom from semi-impactions of the gizzard. This result together with previous observations made at this establishment pointed to the texture and binding properties of litter being the factors of importance in the effects of different kinds of clean litter on growth and feed efficiency in chick rearing.This paper reports a trial to investigate the effects of four litter types, chopped dried grass and feathers representing litters with binding properties, coffee husk representing a loose small particle litter and wood shavings representing a loose large particle litter, together with an intended control litter of clean hessian, on the growth rates, feed …

Chick Rearing in Uganda

Chick Rearing in Uganda

Chick Rearing I. The effect of diet on mortality with special reference to six-day disease

Trichlorethylene-extracted palm-kernel meal is not an essential factor in the production of six-day disease.A comparison of the results of tests 1, 2 and 3 clearly indicates that under the same conditions and with similar chicks, some diets tend to produce six-day disease and some do not.

Chick Rearing III. The effect of diet on vitamin A, xanthophyll and carotene metabolism

Evidence is presented, based on feeding tests, that vitamin A metabolism is adversely affected when meat meal having a vitamin A consuming power in vitro is included in the diet of chicks.Evidence is presented, based on feeding tests, that when fish meal having no vitamin A consuming power in vitro is fed to chicks in a basal ration which produces negligible mortality, the addition of such fish meal to the ration does not appreciably increase mortality.Evidence is presented, based on feeding tests, that when fish meal having a vitamin A consuming power in vitro is fed to chicks in a basal ration which produces negligible mortality, the addition of such fish meal to the ration causes appreciable mortality.

Chick Rearing II. The bacterial syndrome arising from a diet which is conducive to six-day disease

In his observations on six-day disease, Taylor (1944) reported that the chicks which died on his preliminary experiments gave negative results on bacteriological examination.Many workers hold that for routine examination of poultry, a quick, convenient and inexpensive method of detecting certain specific bacterial infection is to inoculate slopes of nutrient agar with liver or other tissue, and incubate at 37° C. It is claimed that some organisms often grow in pure culture from diseased chicks, and that this method is especially suitable in the detection of S. pullorum or S. gallinarum infections. The resultant growth can be washed off in saline solution and tested by specific agglutinating sera or by testing on certain carbohydrates.

Chick Rearing IV. The mechanism of infection in six-day disease with special reference to intestinal putrefaction

Six-day disease of chicks is a disease of intestinal putrefaction, and may be fostered by any ration which contains the following:(a) Animal proteins which show evidence of putrefaction.(b) Excess of fibre, or sponge-like fibre such as palm-kernel meal or sugar-beet pulp, which assist in the proliferation of putrefactive microbes.(c) Residual oils which destroy vitamin A.(d) Starch or carbohydrate insufficient to maintain an acid reaction to the lower end of the intestines.