Parental investment and the coordination of parental activity in the Fieldfare Turdus pilaris

Abstract

We investigated the division of provisioning between Fieldfare Turdus pilaris mates as well as synchronisation and alternation of parental feeding trips. We found that parents equally participated in provisioning of older nestlings, but males provisioned young nestlings more than their mates. Synchronisation between parents was higher during the early nestling stage, when they alternated more than during the whole nestling stage. During the early nestling stage alternation was correlated with parental share in provisioning, suggesting that alternation may ensure more equal participation of each parent in provisioning. However, we did not find an analogous relationship between alternation and provisioning during the late nestling stage.