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Spring vegetation phenology is a robust predictor of breeding date across broad landscapes: a multi-site approach using the Corsican blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

  • Behavioral ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

The regulation of reproductive schedules is an important determinant of avian breeding success. In heterogeneous environments, the optimal breeding period may fluctuate temporally across habitats, often on a spatial scale much shorter than the average dispersal range of individuals. The synchronisation of reproductive events with the most favourable period at a given site therefore involves the integration of a suite of fine-scale environmental signals which contain information about future breeding conditions. In this study, we monitored clutch initiation date of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) breeding in a wide range of environmental conditions (altitude, temperature regimes, habitat type) in Corsica (France) to understand the role of spring temperature and leafing phenology on the precise fine-tuning of egg laying on a local scale. Timing of breeding in blue tits was strongly correlated with phenology of the dominant vegetation (r 2 = 0.87). In contrast, spring temperature was not as robust a predictor of the timing of breeding, because a large part of the residual variation in egg-laying date was accounted by differences (ca. 2 weeks) in the development of the vegetation between habitat types (evergreen vs. deciduous oak forests). Female blue tits therefore appear to use the environmental variable (vegetation phenology) that is most closely linked to the future production of insect prey in order to accurately time laying over the entire spatio-temporal breeding landscape.

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Acknowledgments

We thank A. Mennerat, P.-A. Bernier, P. Garcia-Cournoyer for valuable assistance in the field, and D. and L. Zamboni for providing housing at Muro. We also thank the Association pour l’Etude de l’Environnement du Maquis for housing and laboratory space at Pirio. This research was funded by a NSERC discovery grant to D. W. T., as well as a NSERC doctoral scholarship and by international cooperation funding from the Ministère des Relations Internationales (Québec) and the Ministère Délégué à l’Enseignement Supérieur et à la Recherche (France) to P. B. The research activities complied with relevant laws and regulations of France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, J1K 2R1, Canada

    Patrice Bourgault

  2. Centre d’Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Philippe Perret & Jacques Blondel

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  1. Patrice Bourgault
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  2. Don Thomas
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  3. Philippe Perret
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  4. Jacques Blondel
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Correspondence to Patrice Bourgault.

Additional information

Communicated by Esa Lehikoinen.

Don Thomas: Deceased, 30 May 2009.

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Bourgault, P., Thomas, D., Perret, P. et al. Spring vegetation phenology is a robust predictor of breeding date across broad landscapes: a multi-site approach using the Corsican blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). Oecologia 162, 885–892 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1545-0

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