The life history of Cettia diphone

1. Breeding ecology

Abstract

1. The breeding ecology of Cettia diphone was investigated in an area of 0.44km² at Chusha, Togakushi Height, Nagano Prefecture in 1968 and 1969.
2. The study area was about 1200m above sea level, with larch and deciduous forest (Quercus mongolica var. grosseserrata, Betula platyphylla var. japonica and etc.), the forest floor beiing richly covered by Sasa kurilensis.
3. Cettia diphone arrived in study area in the middle of April and lived until mid-October in the bush with abundant Sasa kurilensis. Its population density determined by line transect census was about 147birds/km².
4. The eggs, 4-6 a clutch, are laid daily in the early morning.
5. The female alone incubated during 16 days until all the eggs hatched. The chicks were brooded and fed by female alone, and left the nest at the age of 14 days.
6. Throughout the breeding season the home range of the male, measured by time-mapping method, was rather stable and was the same as the song area.
7. The song area of the male was restricted to higher parts of a tree. But, its living area was distributed within all bights of a tree.