Natural History of the Bell Vireo, Vireo bellii AudubonBarlow, Jon C.
Science
Natural History of the Bell Vireo, Vireo bellii Audubon
Barlow, Jon C.
Bell vireo; Birds
My data, based on incubation beginning with the second egg, indicate
that the female incubates more often daily than the male (fig. 5). The
male sits on the eggs only occasionally in the morning, but almost as
often as the female in the afternoon. Nolan (1960:233) found that 95.5
per cent of the male's time on the nest and only 40 per cent of the
female's time were attributable to the early hours of the day.
Although I lack data on the critical hours of 5:00 a.m. to 6:59 a.m.,
I have enough observations (20) from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. to
indicate that the males sit on the eggs infrequently (3 of 20
instances) in those hours. The discrepancy in the two sets of data,
which may be merely an artifact of sampling techniques, does suggest
two possible alternatives: (1) the male sits on the eggs in the
morning and gives the female, who sits on the eggs throughout the
night, an extended rest and an opportunity to forage; (2) the female
continues to sit throughout the morning, especially during the early
hours of daylight, a time of day when the temperature may still be low
enough to impair development of the embryo.
_Relief of Partners in Incubation_
Relief of partners involves some ceremony. When the female is
incubating, the male sings several times as he approaches the nest
tree; the female responds with several _chees_, but otherwise remains
immobile. The male sings several more times upon alighting in the nest
tree whereupon the female _chees_ again and flies directly from the
nest. A few seconds later the male appears at the edge of the nest
and, after inspecting the eggs, hops in and settles upon them. When
the male is sitting he is notably anxious prior to an exchange with
the female, often arising and craning his neck as he surveys the
surrounding vegetation, seemingly searching for his mate. The singing
of the male and the calling of the female serve as signals,
coordinating the exchange.
NESTLING PERIOD
_Hatching Sequence_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account