Abstract
The Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Elaenia flavogaster, is widely distributed throughout Central and South America, yet detailed studies on its reproductive biology were conducted only in Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Here, we present breeding biology information for a population of the Yellow-bellied Elaenia from São Paulo State, southeast Brazil, and we reveal remarkable variations in several reproductive parameters. During five breeding seasons, we analyzed 23 nests that were found from September to December. Both males and females contributed to nest construction, incubation, and nestling provisioning. Eggs were laid on consecutive days and clutch sizes averaged 2.0 ± 0.4 eggs. Incubation and nestling periods lasted 14.7 ± 1.0 and 19.5 ± 1.9 days, respectively. Nest survival probability from laying to fledging was 30%. In the populations from northern South America and Central America, breeding season and incubation periods were longer, nestling period was shorter, eggs in a clutch were laid with a 2-day interval, and only females incubated. Our data add to the findings that reproductive parameters of widely distributed species can vary among regions in the Neotropics, and the divergences were likely caused by latitudinal adaptations.
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Data is available from corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Faculdade de Engenharia de Sorocaba (FACENS) for authorizing field work at the campus. At the time this study was conducted (2007–2011), this was part of a larger project on bird reproductive biology for which field work and methods were approved by SISBio/CEMAVE. We especially thank Dr. Jaime E. Jimenez and two anonymous referees for important comments on the previous versions of this manuscript.
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PV Davanço received a fellowship from Universidade Federal de São Carlos (PIADRD Programme), and LS Oliveira, MS Freitas, and VL Nunes received fellowships from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (PIBIC/CNPq). MRF receives a Productivity Research Fellowship (CNPq - Proc# 308702/2019-0).
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PVD, LSO, MSF, and MRF conceived the study design and carried out data collection; MRF and VLN analyzed the data and wrote the first version of the paper; PVD, LSO, MSF, VLN, and MRF contributed to the elaboration of the final version of the manuscript.
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Field procedures and bird capture and marking were approved and authorized by the Brazilian authority ICMBio/CEMAVE.
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Nunes, V.L., Davanço, P.V., de Oliveira, L.S. et al. Reproductive aspects of the Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Elaenia flavogaster (Tyrannidae), in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Ornithol. Res. 28, 209–215 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43388-020-00030-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43388-020-00030-1