From EurekAlert!
Public Release: 10-Jan-2019
Why great tits kill pied flycatchers in their next boxes
University of Groningen
IMAGE: This is Jelmer Samplonius with a pied flycatcher. Credit: Rob Buiter
University of Groningen (UG) biologists have discovered that climate change has an effect on the regular clashes between great tits and pied flycatchers during the breeding season. In some years, great tits killed 10% of the male pied flycatchers. UG researchers have published an analysis of this behaviour on 10 January in the journal Current Biology.
Great tits are not just the funny, fluffy birds feeding off the fat balls in your winter garden. ‘During the breeding season, they can become very aggressive indeed’, says biologist Jelmer Samplonius. He studied great tits and pied flycatchers for his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Groningen.
Aggression
While checking the nest boxes used in his field studies, Samplonius would regularly find the results of this aggression: a dead flycatcher in a nest box occupied by great tits. ‘When a flycatcher enters a box with a great tit inside, it doesn’t stand a chance’, Samplonius explains. ‘The great tit is heavier, as the flycatchers are built for a long migration from Europe to Western Africa and back. Also, great tits have very strong claws.’ In this case, the dead flycatchers usually have fatal head wounds. ‘And it appears that the great tits then eat the brains.’
There has always been competition between the two species for nesting locations. ‘Pied flycatchers try to steal nesting facilities from the tits. They may be no match when fighting inside the nesting boxes, but they are more agile flyers’, says Samplonius. Flycatchers fly around the great tits while they are building their nests, thus driving them away.
Adaptation
The question that Samplonius and his Ph.D. supervisor Christiaan Both tackled in the Current Biology paper is whether climate change has any effect on this behaviour. ‘Both species need to time the birth of their young with a peak in the availability of caterpillars’, says Samplonius. This peak is linked to the appearance of the first leaves on trees, and higher average temperatures mean that this period has shifted to earlier in the year.
Great tits are non-migratory birds, and they respond to higher temperatures by laying their eggs earlier. ‘Pied flycatchers now migrate to Europe earlier, but their adaptation is not as good as that of the great tits. Their earlier arrival is not linked to the actual temperature at their breeding grounds.’ Samplonius knows this because, over a period of 10 years, he and his colleagues have recorded the arrival of pied flycatchers and the start of egg laying of both great tits and flycatchers in two national parks.
Mortality
Milder winters are one result of climate change. ‘This increases the survival of great tits, so the number of breeding birds will be higher.’ More great tits mean more competition for the flycatchers – and more conflict. It should be noted, however, that climate change is not the only factor in this: mast years – years in which there are more beechnuts – also increase great tit survival.
A second reason for the increased competition is that great tits and pied flycatchers have adapted to climate change differently. The biggest problems occur in colder springs, when tits start building their nests relatively late but the flycatchers still arrive early. ‘In this situation, the overlap in breeding time is greatest, and so is the number of conflicts.’ Great tits killed up to 10% of territorial male flycatchers inside a nesting box in just two weeks of competition. As the mortality for flycatchers across the entire year is about 55%, this is quite a lot.
Climate change
Interestingly, we didn’t see an effect on the overall flycatcher population of about 300 breeding pairs in our study’, remarks Samplonius. ‘We noted that the males killed were usually those who arrived late in the season. These late birds quite often don’t find a female to breed with, so that may explain why this behaviour has no impact on the population.’
Overall, the study shows that climate change affects the behaviour of both bird species, as well as the interaction between them. A group led by Christiaan Both, Professor of Ecology at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), will continue to study tits and flycatchers to discover if there are any long-term effects of this behaviour. Samplonius, meanwhile, has moved to the University of Edinburgh, where he is now studying blue tits. ‘I’m looking at similar questions here, along a 220-kilometer transect in Scotland. It’s really interesting to witness all these changes caused by climate change.’
###
Reference: J.M. Samplonius and C. Both: Climate Change May Affect Fatal Competition between Two Bird Species. Current Biology 10 January 2019.
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What a great tit!
Nice one. I wonder if there are two in the bush.
It would appear some evidence exists for that proposition:
Great tits are not just . . . feeding off the fat balls in your winter garden.
Yet the experience is not always as pleasant as one may think:
‘. . . great tits have very strong claws.’ In this case, the dead . . . usually have fatal head wounds. ‘And it appears that the great tits then eat the brains.’
Oh dear . . .
sounds like Zombie Tits
I just hope my next box doesn’t kill me.
Aren’t great tits what makes chicken so tasty?
Another young PhD guy doing a thesis about the dangers of global warming.
So sad.
I bet they are importing foreign tech workers and other skilled workers into his country
He’s not old enough to (personally) witness any changes caused by climate change! Climate now is the same as it was the day he was born!
(And I passed on the chance to say, I would be excited to see a pair of great tits! There. Aren’t you proud of me?)
Maybe young bird loving PhDs should be studying the war on birds; i.e. the kill-offs at Ivanpah and on wind farms. That would be more useful to real ecology.
Meanwhile in other news, climate change (solutions) indiscriminately kills large percentages of bats and raptors
This would have been an acceptable piece of work except for the absurd insertion of climate change as the culprit as a given so precisely understood that no explanation is needed. I read again and climate change has almost beed inserted after the fact. What is the basis, i.e. the study using accepted modern methods from the 19th century which found no evidence for this practice? How about during the Little Ice Age? Indeed if our intrepid claimer of climate woe is correct then there must have been wholesale murder of flycatchers during the Medieval Warm Period! How does this juvenile waffle get past reviewers unless the job of the reviewer now is to asess papers for quantity of references and claims about the catastrophic effects of minute imperceptible changes in temperature since 1850
“I read again and climate change has almost beed inserted after the fact.”
Very likely it has. Same as praising the regime in a communist country of old; you go through the motions, kow-tow to authority and hope for the best, which is money.
Hopefully this is being done almost instinctively, hopefully the young man has not seriously contemplated CAGW or other such nastiness, but simply accepted this as just another fact of life, like court etiquette in a monarchy, or knowing which soccer team to support in any given part of Glasgow city.
Then, this will be a ritual that can just as easily be shed, when the time comes. I have faith in youth.
Jon, I certain the CC was not just added…..this kid has studied these birds for over 10 years…and either purposely left out their mating habits…or was not even aware of it….I think he was looking for a CC cause
…but what he did say…is the slow male flycatchers are being culled…leaving only the early males to pass on their genes
BTW…that totally negates his CC argument
Sounds like a little Survival of the Fittest Evolution in process
Excuse my typo…. glasses should be warn at all times. But where does climate change come in? He must have a reference to “before” the change which he claims it as the overal controlling factor. He does not do this and again I call out those who reviewed this piece of work. Possibly authentic observations are made garbage by the political content . Why I wonder? Is there a dollar sign attached to each handwringing claim of the woes of climate change looking for the next paper to be written with the nose in the climate industrial complex trof?
Jon, here’s the paper…they invented the Climate Change part
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdfExtended/S0960-9822(18)31593-8
Dang, “Great tits” fool me every time..
Yeah, I must not know my ornithology. I thought tits were flycatchers.
So did he indicate that As the Climate gets warmer, Great Tits are more exposed??
Killer tits? (excuse me!)
I couldn’t help it. I am just a simple Red Neck!
https://youtu.be/LB_aegewceU
“next boxes” is hard to “tern” down also..at my age, you never know when the “next” will come along ! Groooooan……
Wonder if they did a study on windfarms killing raptors and bats disruption of the fauna. They should be able to qualify for funding as that is related to “climate change” In the picture is that not a fleece jacket being worn? Oh my the fossil fuel of it all.
Great tits are not just the funny, fluffy birds feeding off the fat balls in your winter garden.
LOL
LOL indeed, and very risque language to boot:
“…regular clashes between great tits and pied flycatchers during the breeding season.”
Fie on you, great tits, my groin will groan if you mess with the fly!
But where is the Pied Climate Piper?
Samplonius, meanwhile, has moved to the University of Edinburgh, where he is now studying blue tits . . . ‘It’s really interesting to witness all these changes caused by climate change.’
So not merely a Pause, but a cooling trend it seems . . .
That’s just woadsome:
https://triviahappy.com/articles/5-questions-about-scottish-face-makeup-as-seen-in-braveheart
Scotland: Where even the chebs are patriots?
and more than the Tits are Blue
Dang, 10 years I lived in Daytona Beach, Florida and nobody ever paid me to watch/study all those “Great Tits” from around world that happened to cross my path…
Praise your Destiny for saving you from going cross-eyed…
At least you have the Mileamo bird down there
I miss a scientifi paper about natural effects without relations to climate change.
On the other hand, since live on earth exists, there is evolution and adaptation to (climate) changes, isn’t ?
You are someone with perspective. Do not lose it!
“Overall, the study shows that climate change affects the behaviour of both bird species, as well as the interaction between them.”
Behavior and interaction between species that compete for nesting, foraging, are constantly evolving and changing. Population and interaction dynamics. So is climate also always changing over scales of a few decades.
In a natural setting you cannot isolate the two – population dynamics and changing climate.
This is just more junk science equating correlation with causation.
What?! What?! Is there nothing that cannot be blamed on global warming? This one puts a new meaning to the word “ridiculous” !!
How far are we now from Alfred Hitchcocks “The Birds” ?
Have we to fear an escalation in that direction ??
😀
Who doesn’t love great tits? I’ve been a tit man all my adult life.
The possibility of aggressive great tits blows my mind!
You should move to Hollywood, which is loaded with white-breasted and red-breasted nuthatches!
Typical leftist take: pay lip service to the supposed underdog, make it look like you are the champion of the oppressed, and demand that others should sacrifice to force equal outcomes.
Marvellous how they can magically the Climate component from everything else
Same old story, add the words “Climate change “, and one not only gets a Grant, but is then given a easy ride via “The Chums who review such papers.
As a reader says, what about a study of the deaths of birds by the windmills, no way, that sort of study is not what the reviewers want to see.
Would be of interest if one of us were to do such a study, first to ask for a grant, almost certain to be refused, then to submit such a study to the various publications, then to publish the result.
MJE
So how is that the fault of
global warmingClimate Change™?We’ll know more when Samplonius completes his work in those colder climates:
Samplonius, meanwhile . . . is now studying blue tits.
He’ll find it’s warmed up and the tits arent as blue as they used to be.
Us Alaskans know how to manage less than optimum warmth without turning blue up front 🙂 🙂
If I knew climate change would cause this I would have submitted to world communism long ago
Just a silly article taking a natural competition that has existed forever and blaming it on climate change.
Great Tits have always had the natural advantage; they breed locally and can begin nest building with certain knowledge of the weather. Once the nest is complete their superior fighting ability means that the flycatchers have very little chance to displace them.
Pied Flycatchers have to migrate to the breeding area over a long distance; migrate too early and they arrive weakened and with inadequate food supply (they do not eat the winter foods that sustain the Great Tits). So naturally they have evolved to arrive at a conservative date relative to the start of spring and food supplies. Climate change has no impact on this; the species adapts to temperature change, but they can’t just turn on the TV in their tropical hotel rooms and find out the if it’s going to be warm next week in Scandinavia.
The interaction between the species has been studied in a lot of detail, and back in the 70s there were quite a few experiments designed to see how the competition works. The article makes it seem like this is some kind of slaughter but the birds are rarely killed in fights. In fact the male flycatchers will often reproduce with one female then try to take over other nest sites so that he can attract a second mate. This is why the males are aggressive even if they are not good fighters; having already reproduced they can afford to behave in a riskier way. Final point; the flycatchers are actually the beneficiaries of the competition since they use the Great Tits to locate food sources for their young, resulting in greater reproductive success when Great Tits are present. They are among the least endangered birds in Europe.
Just more unsupported BS blaming climate change. As professors have joked in my biology department, “If only I can link climate change, my research could get funded”
Oh noes! The Birdemic is coming.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG7B73rvNSA&w=560&h=315%5D
What movie is this? Bit surprise San Mateo High School came up- I went there but it isnt mentioned in too many movies.
“No impact on the population…” Since “… males killled … who arrived late in the season … don’t breed ….”
Survival of the fittest redux? If the future male generations of pied fly-catchers get epigentic modification for climate instigated new seasonal time reaction & more arrive in time to find a female fly-catcher will there be less great tits outdoors? (Asking for a friend.)