This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that when food becomes scarce, male pigeons spend more time incubating eggs, allowing females additional time to forage for themselves. Pigeon parents flexibly divide labor to keep the nest warm and protected almost continuously.
Females perform most of the incubation before the eggs hatch, regardless of whether food is abundant or scarce, with their effort limited only by their energy reserves. In the study, females spent 81% of their time on the nest when food was readily available, while males accounted for only 17%. Under reduced food availability, females had lower energy reserves and reduced their incubation effort to 75%.
Males compensated by increasing their share to 22%. This kept overall nest attendance virtually unchanged regardless of food availability. The researchers studied a total of 75 pigeon nests across three cities with feeding bans.
Feeding bans are a common tool used by cities and municipalities to reduce pigeon populations, recognizing that urban pigeon populations are largely sustained by human food. One group consisted of urban pigeons living in managed pigeon lofts with a reliable food supply. The other group nested freely on buildings, such as inside church roofs and on ledges, and had to find food on their own elsewhere.
To monitor incubation behavior and the physical condition of the parent birds while minimizing disturbance, the research team installed weight sensors beneath the nests to record weight changes automatically. The weight data also revealed that females with access to an adequate food supply were about 35 grams (1.2 ounces), or 10%, heavier than females in the unfed control group. The researchers interpret this as an indicator of varying energy reserves resulting from differences in food availability.
No meaningful weight differences were found among males, as unfed males had more time to find food elsewhere because they spent so little time incubating. Food shortages from feeding bans therefore primarily affected female pigeons. "Our study highlights how food limitation affects pigeons," says Brandon Mak, research associate at the Chair of Terrestrial Ecology at TUM and the study's lead author.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
