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Incubation scheduling by African Black Oystercatchers: effects of weather, tide phase, and time of day

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Abstract

Constant nest attentiveness, which benefits avian embryos, and body maintenance activities (e.g., foraging trips) by incubating parents are mutually exclusive activities. To balance these, parents must schedule the time spent on and off their nests according to a wide range of environmental conditions that change the costs and benefits of breaking or continuing an incubation bout. Here, we used data from 38 camera-monitored nests over two breeding seasons on Robben Island, Southern Africa to examine how African Black Oystercatchers Haematopus moquini, a biparental incubator, varied incubation bout length in relation to environmental variables that would have affected energy/water budgets: tide phase, air temperature, windspeed and time of day (day versus night). We predicted that incubation bout duration would decrease at high temperatures and wind speeds when energetic and water needs increase and increase at high tides when foraging opportunities decrease. Oystercatchers’ overall nest attentiveness was high at 95%. Incubation bout length was longer at high tide and at night than at low tide and during the day. Incubation bout length decreased with increases in temperature but had a non-linear relationship with windspeed that varied by the time of day: it increased sharply with windspeed and plateaued at high windspeed during the day, but largely declined with moderate to high windspeeds at night. These results suggest that oystercatchers’ energetic, thermoregulatory, and hydration needs may have increased with high heat loads during the day but decreased at night and with increased windspeed during the day, and oystercatchers responded by varying incubation bout lengths accordingly. The proximity of their nests to the intertidal zone, which means short travel time and quick access to food, water, and thermoregulatory opportunities, seems to be of vital importance to their capacity to maintain high nest attentiveness and deal with increasing heat loads.

Zusammenfassung

Zeitmanagement bei brütenden Kapausternfischern Haematopus moquini : Einflüsse von Wetter, Gezeiten und Tageszeit

Ständige Nestfürsorge, die den Vogelembryos zugutekommt, und Selbsterhaltungsmaßnahmen (beispielsweise Nahrungssuche) der brütenden Elterntiere sind Aktivitäten, die sich gegenseitig ausschließen. Um diese miteinander vereinbaren zu können, müssen die Eltern die auf dem oder fern vom Nest verbrachte Zeit abhängig von einem breiten Spektrum an Umweltvariablen organisieren, welche Kosten und Nutzen der Entscheidung, eine Brutpause einzulegen oder nicht, verändern. Auf der Grundlage von an 38 kameraüberwachten Nestern über zwei Brutsaisons auf Robben Island (Südafrika) gewonnenen Daten untersuchten wir, wie Kapausternfischer Haematopus moquini, eine Vogelart, bei der beide Elternteile brüten, die Dauer der Brutphasen im Verhältnis zu Umweltvariablen mit Einfluss auf ihren Energie- und Wasseraushalt veränderten: Gezeitenphase, Lufttemperatur, Windgeschwindigkeit und Tageszeit (Tag/Nacht). Wir erwarteten, dass die Länge der Brutabschnitte bei hohen Temperaturen und Windgeschwindigkeiten mit wachsendem Energie- und Wasserbedarf abnähmen; wenn bei Flut die Nahrungssuche schwieriger wird, sollte die Länge der Brutphasen dagegen zunehmen. Insgesamt verbrachten die Austernfischer mit 95% einen Großteil der Zeit auf dem Nest. Die Brutphasen waren bei Flut und des Nachts länger als bei Ebbe und tagsüber. Die Dauer der Brutphasen nahm mit zunehmender Umgebungstemperatur ab, stand jedoch mit der Windgeschwindigkeit in einem nichtlinearen Verhältnis, welches sich mit der Tageszeit änderte: Tagsüber stieg die Dauer mit der Windgeschwindigkeit steil an, um bei hoher Windgeschwindigkeit ein Plateau zu erreichen; nachts dagegen fiel sie bei mittleren bis hohen Windgeschwindigkeiten zumeist ab. Diese Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass der Bedarf der Austernfischer hinsichtlich Energie, Thermoregulation und Wasserzufuhr mit wachsender Wärmebelastung im Tagesverlauf angestiegen, bei Nacht jedoch sowie bei zunehmender Windgeschwindigkeit bei Tag gesunken sein könnte und dass die Austernfischer darauf mit entsprechenden Änderungen in der Brutdauer reagierten. Die räumliche Nähe der Nester zur Gezeitenzone bedeutet kurze Wege sowie schnellen Zugang zu Nahrung, Wasser und thermoregulatorischen Möglichkeiten und scheint von entscheidender Bedeutung für die Fähigkeit der Austernfischer zu starker Nestfürsorge und der Bewältigung zunehmender Wärmebelastung zu sein.

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Data access statement

Data and r script are available as supplementary files. Data can also be accessed through University of Cape Town's Zivahub Digital Repository.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Leventis Foundation through the A. P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute, Jos, Nigeria. Mr Sabelo Madlala and his team from the Environmental Unit of Robben Island Museum facilitated access to Robben Island. Air temperature data were provided by the South African Weather Services through Elsa DeJager, Lucky Dlamini, and Musa Mkhwanazi. Tide height data for the Cape Town harbour area were supplied by the Hydrographer, South African Navy, Ruth Farre. Professor LG Underhill, Ms Sue Kuyper and all the field assistants who supported fieldwork during this research are acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Bukola D. A. Braimoh-Azaki & Susan J. Cunningham

  2. Centre for Biological Diversity, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, Fife, UK

    Will Cresswell

  3. AP Leventis Ornithological Research Institute, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria

    Bukola D. A. Braimoh-Azaki & Will Cresswell

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  1. Bukola D. A. Braimoh-Azaki
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  2. Susan J. Cunningham
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Contributions

BDAB: conceptualization, data curation, funding acquisition, methodology design, resources, investigation, formal analysis, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing; SJC: validation, supervision, writing—review and editing; WC: methodology design, resources, validation, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Bukola D. A. Braimoh-Azaki.

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Ethical clearance were given by the Science Faculty Animal Ethics Committee, University of Cape Town (2018/v5/LU) and the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and Department of Environmental Affairs (RES2017/48, RES2018/48).

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Braimoh-Azaki, B.D.A., Cunningham, S.J. & Cresswell, W. Incubation scheduling by African Black Oystercatchers: effects of weather, tide phase, and time of day. J Ornithol 164, 139–149 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-022-02023-x

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