Nesting Ecology of the Passerines in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
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Graphical Abstract
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Abstract
Nesting is an important component of parental effort in birds. During the breeding seasons from 1990 to 2004, we surveyed the nests of twelve passerines and compared the distribution patterns and architecture traits of nests in Tibetan Plateau. The nest sites of twelve passerines have obviously different spatial patterns and can be categorized into overground, ground and underground types, among which most passerines nestings are ground type. The architecture of nests diversifies from simple to complex spectrum, showing from shallow to deep shape, open to close nest, single and little plant materials to multiple material of animal and plant. Despite these differences, we suggest that the nest choice of passerine in alpine meadow based on the trade-off between security and heat insulation.Every nest type in spectrum has own advantages and disadvantages, and genetic and environmental factors confine what kind of nest type passerine adopts. In addition, carrying nest material, as a parental effort, is an important component of reproductive investment. The ratio between mass of nest material and parent reflects the extent of nesting investment. The nest material of larks, which have open and ground nests, accounts for half of parental mass, but nest material of Pseudopodoces humilis, nesting underground, is 5 times of parent mass. Rest ratios of passerine lie in this range. In general, those investment diversities are the results of interactions of many biological traits to meet embryo and nestling development under the predation pressure and interspecies competition.
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