Comparison of nestling diet between first and second broods of great tits Parus major in urban and forest habitats

Abstract

To understand why early broods tend to be more successful than late broods we investigated the nestling diet and reproductive success of great tit pairs that had both a first and a second brood in the same breeding season. We found that in forest habitats great tit parents delivered similar composition and amount of food per nestlings throughout the breeding season, resulting in similar nestling body mass and survival in both first and second broods. In urban habitats, however, although parents provided similar amounts of food to the second broods they tended to deliver fewer caterpillars. In parallel with this, we observed lower nestling survival in second urban broods than in first broods even though the body mass of surviving nestlings was similar to that of the first broods. These findings suggest that although parents produce smaller second broods in both habitats, they are able to compensate for lower food availability in forest habitats but not in urban habitats, thus leading to reduced food quality and lower offspring survival in urban second broods.