Doi: https://doi.org/10.13157/arla.72.1.2025.ra5
Authors: Tainá Karoline GUEDES, Vivian Heloise TAVARES-SOUSA and João Batista PINHO
E-mail: tainakarolineg@gmail.com
Published: Volume 72.1, January 2025. Pages 65-80.
Language: English
Keywords: brooding, incubation, neotropic, nest-building, offspring, Pantanal and songbird
Summary:
Reproductive success is enhanced through parental care. yet these advantages come with associated costs for the parents, including those affecting their own survival. Environmental conditions and species life history can influence which parental care strategy emerges. In birds, parental care is prevalent and often biparental, in which both males and females contribute to the same activities, although the extent varies between species. This study aimed to compare parental investment between male and female Mato Grosso Antbirds Cercomacra melanaria in the Pantanal wetlands, Brazil. Analysed behaviours included carrying material and nest shaping during nest-building; total incubation duration and incubation related to time of day (morning and afternoon) during the incubation period; and brooding, feeding offspring and faecal sac removal during the nestling stage. nest defence events were recorded for all three periods, investigating whether this behaviour intensified with nestlings’ development. Whereas no differences between males and females were found in most analysed behaviors, males were observed to incubate more throughout day-time, specifically during the morning. This heightened provision by males may serve as compensation for the substantial costs associated with egg production and/or as a response to the elevated predation risk that females incur during nocturnal incubation. Males defended the nest more than females, but the outcomes do not suggest that Mato Grosso Antbird parents tend to show increased aggressiveness when the value of their offspring is higher, which diverges from parental investment theory. Further studies incorporating manipulative methods, such as playbacks, are necessary to establish whether this similarity in behaviour between developmental periods holds true. If so, it raises questions regarding what motivates the pair to defend the nesting stages to a similar extent.
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