Pied Flycatcher Brood Size Manipulation Data on Provisioning and Begging

Experimental data from free-living pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) where brood size was manipulated to study parental and offspring behaviors. The dataset supports analysis of means and variances in provisioning rates, nestling begging intensity, and parental body mass changes. It was collected by David F. Westneat and published in 2020.

Use Cases

• Model the relationship between manipulated brood size and parental provisioning rate using double hierarchical generalized linear models.
• Analyze variance in nestling begging intensity as a function of brood size manipulation.
• Investigate patterns in residual variance of female parental body mass changes relative to foraging trip duration.
• Examine correlations between brood demand, food delivery consistency, and shifts in parental time budgets.

Strengths

• Data originates from a controlled field experiment with brood size manipulation, enabling causal inference.
• Analytical approach uses double hierarchical generalized linear models to study both means and variances, a sophisticated statistical method.
• Dataset is openly licensed under CC0-1.0, permitting unrestricted reuse.

Limitations

• Sample size and number of rows are unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Specific variables and column structure are not detailed, complicating immediate analytical use.
• Data is from a single bird species (pied flycatcher) and a specific ecological context, limiting generalizability.

Provenance

Source

David F. Westneat

Collection Method

Field experiment on free-living pied flycatchers involving brood size manipulation.

Freshness

Last updated in June 2020.