Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Wiebe K.L. & Elchuk C.L. (2003) Correlates of parental care in Northern Flickers Colaptes auratus: Do the sexes contribute equally while provisioning young? ARDEA 91 (1): 91-101
We studied the behaviour of Northern Flickers Colaptes auratus rearing nestlings to see whether factors such as parental age and gender, nestling age, ambient temperature and brood size explained the quantity and type of parental care to nestlings. Based on 156 time budgets from 39 females and 38 males in British Columbia, we found that females spent about 5% more time than males foraging, but that overall provisioning rates did not differ between the sexes. On the other hand, males spent 5% more time than females in the nest brooding or feeding young. In response to lower temperatures, parents spent more time in the nest and less time foraging. Provisioning visits were significantly fewer in cold weather (0.85 visits/parent/hr) than in warm weather (0.97 visits/parent/hr), but were similar between yearling and older parents. As brood size increased, parents spent less time in the nest and more time foraging, but provisioning rates did not increase significantly. A comparison of time budgets suggests that energy spent provisioning nestlings is similar for male and female parents, although male flickers may have a greater reproductive effort than females when the entire breeding season is considered


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