The bold and the bashful: anti-predator behavior in Carolina Chickadees.

SARAH K. BAILLIE; EVAN P. KELEMEN; VALENTINA FERRETTI; ROBERT L. CURRY

Chicago

Congreso; One Hundred and Thirty-first Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union held in conjunction with the Eighty-third Annual Meeting of the Cooper Ornithological Society; 2013

American Ornithologists' Union and Cooper Ornithological Society

Personality is defined as consistency in behavior across time and contexts. This is an active area of study, with many researchers finding that personalities can account for much behavioral variation among individuals. Experiments simulating predation threat can be used to study boldness and risk-taking – as key components of personality – in passerines. We investigated boldness in response to predatory threat through field experiments involving Carolina Chickadees, a species that has exhibited consistency in some other behaviors across different social contexts. Among responses to threat that can be quantified in chickadees is vocal behavior: call rate and number of dee elements in the chick-a-dee call increase linearly with degree of threat. We presented predator (squirrel and owl) and control models to breeding pairs during the 2-wk nestling stage and then recorded chickadee vocal and spatial responses. Principal components analysis (PCA) yielded composite measures representing mainly call content (PC1) and spatial response (PC2). PC1 varied among individuals regardless of stimulus type, whereas PC2 varied among stimuli. Brood size and nestling age did not affect responses, suggesting that intrinsic more then external factors constrain responses to perceived threat. Our results support the hypothesis that anti-predatory behavior is a component of personality in Carolina Chickadees. Boldness is likely to be important for nest defense and for males protecting mates from extra-pair copulations, both of which can be expected to impact reproductive success.