Abstract
We propose two stochastic models to explain how birds choose colonies. In the resource choice model, birds settle at each site at a rate proportional to the total resources the site contains. In the reduced resource choice model, a smaller cohort of birds enters sites at a rate determined by the total resources at each, and the remaining individuals enter sites at a rate that is linearly proportional to the total number of birds already nesting at each site. Thus, a fraction of birds chooses sites based on the resources present, and the remainder are attracted to a site by the presence of other birds. Colony site quality is assumed not to vary between years. Both models result, on average, in an ideal free distribution of colony sizes if the birds' settlement rate is linearly related to the resources in a site, if resources are distributed equally among individuals within sites, and if individuals with equal resources have equal fitness. We applied these models to long-term data on colony sizes and site usage of cliff swallows in south-western Nebraska. A test of the resource choice model suggested that the swallow population as a whole did not choose sites based strictly on site quality or the total resources contained at each site. However, a test of the reduced resource choice model suggested that a smaller fraction of the individuals in each colony may have based their choice of site on local resource availability, with the remaining birds aggregating at those sites based on the number of birds already settled there. Tests of these models may provide insight into how individuals choose colony sites and why colonies vary in size.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allee WC, Emerson AE, Park O, Park T, Schmidt, KP (1949) Principles of animal ecology. Saunders, Philadelphia
Blancher PJ, Robertson RJ (1985) Site consistency in kingbird breeding performance: implications for site fidelity. J Anim Ecol 54:1017–1027
Brooke M (1990) The Manx shearwater. Poyser, London
Brown CR (1988) Enhanced foraging efficiency through information centers: a benefit of coloniality in cliff swallows. Ecology 69:602–613
Brown CR, Brown MB (1986) Ectoparasitism as a cost of coloniality in cliff swallows (Hirundo pyrrhonota). Ecology 67:1206–1218
Brown CR, Brown MB (1987) Group-living in cliff swallows as an advantage in avoiding predators. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 1:97–107
Brown CR, Brown MB (in press) Coloniality in the cliff swallow: the effect of group size on social behavior. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Brown CR, Stutchbury BJ, Walsh PD (1990) Choice of colony size in birds. Trends Ecol Evol 5:398–403
Burger J (1988) Social attraction in nesting least terns:effects of numbers, spacing, and pair bonds. Condor 90:575–582
Burger J, Gochfeld M (1993) When is a heronry crowded:a case study of Huckleberry Island, New York, U.S.A. J Coastal Res 9:221–228
Cohen JE (1971) Casual groups of monkeys and men:stochastic models of elemental social systems. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Cohen JE (1972) Markov population processes as models of primate social and population dynamics. Theor Popul Biol 3:119–134
Cohen JE (1975) The size and demographic composition of social groups of wild orangutans. Anim Behav 23:543–550
Coulson JC, White E (1958) The effect of age on the breeding biology of the kittiwake Rissa tridactyla. Ibis 100:40–51
Coulson JC, Thomas CS (1985) Changes in the biology of the kittiwake Rissa tridactyla: a 31-year study of a breeding colony. J Anim Ecol 54:9–26
Evans DA (1953) Experimental evidence concerning contagious distributions in ecology. Biometrika 40:186–211
Fretwell SD, Lucas HL Jr (1970) On territorial behavior and other factors influencing habitat distribution in birds. I. Theoretical development. Acta Biotheor 19:1–36
Gaston AJ, Nettleship DN (1981) The thick-billed murres of Prince Leopold Island. Can Wildl Serv Monogr 6:1–350
Gibbs JP (1991) Spatial relationships between nesting colonies and foraging areas of great blue herons. Auk 108:764–770
Gibbs JP, Woodward S, Hunter ML, Hutchinson AE (1987) Determinants of great blue heron colony distribution in coastal Maine. Auk 104:38–47
Giraldeau LA, Caraco T (1993) Genetic relatedness and group size in an aggregation economy. Evol Ecol 7:429–438
Harrington BA (1974) Colony visitation behavior and breeding ages of sooty terns (Sterna fuscata). Bird-Banding 45: 115–144
Higashi M, Yamamura N (1993) What determines animal group size? Insider-outsider conflict and its resolution. Am Nat 142:553–563
Hoogland JL, Sherman PW (1976) Advantages and disadvantages of bank swallow (Riparia riparia) coloniality. Ecol Monogr 46:33–58
Kendall DG (1948) On some modes of population growth leading to R.A. Fisher's logarithmic series distribution. Biometrika 35:6–15
Kendall DG (1949) Stochastic processes and population growth. J R Stat Soc B11:230–264
Lack D (1968) Ecological adaptations for breeding in birds. Methuen, London
Loye JE, Carroll SP (1991) Nest ectoparasite abundance and cliff swallow colony site selection, nestling development, and departure time. In: Loye JE, Zuk M (ed) Bird-parasite interactions: ecology, evolution and behaviour. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 222–241
Massey BW, Atwood JL (1981) Second-wave nesting of the California least tern: age composition and reproductive success. Auk 98:596–605
Moller AP (1987) Advantages and disadvantages of coloniality in the swallow, Hirundo rustica. Anim Behav 35:819–832
Morgan BJT (1976) Stochastic models of grouping changes. Adv Appl Prob 8:30–57
Nettleship DN, Evans PGH (1985) Distribution and status of the Atlantic alcidae. In: Nettleship DN, Birkhead TR (ed) The Atlantic Alcidae:the evolution, distribution and biology of the auks inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent water areas. Academic Press, London, pp 53–154
Partridge L (1978) Habitat selection. In: Krebs JR, Davies NB (ed) Behavioural ecology. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 351–376
Rannala BH, Brown CR (1994) Relatedness and conflict over optimal group size. Trends Ecol Evol 9:117–119
Reed JM, Dobson AP (1993) Behavioural constraints and conservation biology: conspecific attraction and recruitment. Trends Ecol Evol 8:253–256
Renshaw E (1991) Modeling biological populations in space and time. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Robinson SK (1985) Coloniality in the yellow-rumped cacique as a defense against nest predators. Auk 102:506–519
Shields WM, Crook JR (1987) Barn swallow coloniality: a net cost for group breeding in the Adirondacks? Ecology 68:1373–1386
Shields WM, Crook JR, Hebblethwaite ML, and Wiles-Ehmann SS (1988) Ideal free coloniality in the swallows. In: Slobodchikoff CN (ed) The ecology of social behavior. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 189–228
Smith AT, Peacock MM (1990) Conspecific attraction and the determination of metapopulation colonization rates. Conserv Biol 4:320–323
Southwood THE (1978) Ecological methods (2nd edn). Chapman and Hall, New York
Spendelow JA, Patton SR (1988) National atlas of coastal water-bird colonies in the contiguous United States: 1976–82. US Fish Wildl Serv Biol Rep 88(5):1–326
Stamps JA (1988) Conspecific attraction and aggregation in territorial species. Am Nat 131:329–347
Waters WE (1959) A quantitative measure of aggregation in insects. J Econ Entomol 52:1180–1184
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by P. Pamilo
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brown, C.R., Rannala, B. Colony choice in birds: models based on temporally invariant site quality. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 36, 221–228 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165830
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165830