INVESTIGADORES
FERRETTI Valentina
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Parental care in the Rufous-bellied Thrush: Differences between sexes.
Autor/es:
FERRETTI VALENTINA; LLAMBÍAS PAULO E; REBOREDA, JUAN C.
Lugar:
St John's, Newfoundland
Reunión:
Congreso; 118th Stated meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union in conjunction with the 19th Annual Meeting of the Society of Canadian Ornithologists' Union; 2000
Resumen:
We studied sexual differences in parental care in a sexually monomorphic, socially monogamous species, the Rufous-bellied Thrush (Turdus rufiventris). Previous studies indicate that in this species, parental care should be similar across sexes. The study was carried out in a suburban area 50 km NW of Buenos Aires, Argentina during the 1998 and 1999 breeding seasons. We videotaped the behavior of the adults attending the nest during the incubation (n = 12 nests) and nestling periods (n = 27 nests). All adults were banded and morphologically, behaviorally and/or genetically sexed. A discriminant analysis indicated that weight was the only morphological variable that discriminated between sexes, thus the species was considered monomorphic regarding its external morphology. Only females incubated the eggs, spending 70-75% of their time incubating. During the early nestling period, the females spent a higher proportion of time than males in the care of the nestlings. This difference was a consequence of females spending more time brooding (performed exclusively by females) and keeping the nest clean. By the end of the nestling period there were no sexual differences in parental care, mainly because of the absence of brooding. The frequency and size of food items delivered to the nestlings did not differ between sexes. Our results show that although this species is sexually monomorphic, parental care is considerably higher in females than in males.