Food and social cues modulate reproductive development but not migratory behavior in a nomadic songbird, the Pine Siskin (Pinus spinus)
Data files
Jan 25, 2024 version files 217.12 KB
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food.consumption.data.csv
21.24 KB
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pisi_all_condition_data.csv
78.81 KB
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PISI.2021.Exp.Noc.Activity.Data.csv
112.33 KB
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README.md
4.74 KB
Abstract
Many animals rely on photoperiodic and non-photoperiodic environmental cues to gather information and appropriately time life history stages across the annual cycle, such as reproduction, molt, and migration. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that the reproductive physiology, but not migratory behavior, of captive Pine Siskins responds to both food and social cues during the spring migratory-breeding period. Pine Siskins are a nomadic finch with a highly flexible breeding schedule and, in the spring, free-living Pine Siskins can wander large geographic areas and opportunistically breed. To understand the importance of non-photoperiodic cues to the migratory-breeding transition, we maintained individually housed birds on either a standard or enriched diet in the presence of group-housed heterospecifics or conspecifics experiencing either the standard or enriched diet type. We measured body condition and reproductive development of all Pine Siskins and, among individually housed Pine Siskins, quantified nocturnal migratory restlessness. In group-housed birds, the enriched diet caused increases in body condition and, among females, promoted reproductive development. Among individually housed birds, female reproductive development differed between treatment groups whereas male reproductive development did not. Specifically, individually housed females showed greater reproductive development when presented with conspecifics compared to heterospecifics. The highest rate of female reproductive development, however, was observed amongst individually housed females provided the enriched diet and maintained with group-housed conspecifics on an enriched diet. Changes in nocturnal migratory restlessness did not vary by treatment group or sex. By manipulating both the physical and social environment, this study demonstrates how multiple environmental cues can affect the timing of transitions between life history stages with differential responses between sexes and between migratory and reproductive systems.
This dataset includes activity, body condition, and reproductive condition measurements for male and female pine siskins housed either alone or in groups. These data were collected from an experiment testing how different combinations of environmental cues influence changes in behavior and physiology during the migratory-spring breeding transition.
Description of the Data and file structure
Read me file for “Modulation of Reproductive Physiology and Migratory Behavior in a Nomadic Songbird during Spring: Influence of Food and Social Cues”
File name: food.consumption.data.csv
Columns:
Date: The day of the year data were collected in “mm/dd/yy” format
Room: Categorical variable denoting which room the birds were housed in
birds: categorical variable denoting the bird identification. Group-housed bird have a cage ID rather than band number.
housing: indicates if the bird was housed alone or in groups
cons: binary variable denoting if food item was consumed. 0 indicates the food was not consumed and 1 indicates the food was consumed. Blanks denote instances in which the food item was not provided as either only the greens or worm were provided for that date.
type: the type of food item being consumed. Worm indicates it is a meal worm and veg indicates was a vegetable
File name: pisi_all_condition_data.csv
Columns:
Date: The day of year data were collected in “mm/dd/yy” format
date.group: date denoting which measurements were collected during the same week
meas.group: categorical variable denoting which week measurements were collected
ID: categorical variable denoting the bird identification
treatment: categorical variable denoting treatment group for birds housed individually. Group-housed birds have blank values in this column. Levels of treatment include: ED/ED (enriched diet/enriched diet), RECR (Red Crossbill neighbors), SD/SD (standard diet/standard diet), and SD/ED (standard diet, enriched diet). The description to the left of the parentheses describes the diet of the individually housed birds and the description to the right described the diet of group-housed birds. See Figure 1 and methods of main text for more information.
Room: categorical variable denoting which room of the 4 rooms birds were housed in
subj.stim: categorical variable denoting if a bird was housed alone (“subj”) or in a group (“stim”)
group: categorical variable denoting treatment/diet group and housing conditions
Sex: categorical variable denoting if a bird was male or female
cage.sex.ratio: categorical variable denoting if the cage sex ratio was 2 males and a female (mmf) or 2 females and a male (ffm) or a bird housed alone (focal).
mass: numerical variable denoting the birds mass in grams
Furc: numerical variable denoting the furcular fat score. Rows of group-housed individuals blank.
Ab: numerical variable denoting the abdominal fat score. Rows of group-housed individuals blank.
Fat: numerical variable denoting the sum of the furc and ab fat scores. Rows of group-housed individuals blank.
Muscle: categorical variable denoting the muscle score for a bird. Rows of group-housed individuals blank.
Cat.bp: categorical variable denoting the brood patch score for females, rows of males left blank. Two females (446, 448) are missing data.
CPL: numerical variable denoting the cloacal protuberance length for males. Rows of females left blank. Rows of males with large abdominal fat deposits left blank due to measurements not being accurate (see main text). Data missing for 1 group-housed male (447).
File name: PISI.2021.Exp.Noc.Activity.Data.csv
Columns:
sensor: denotes ID of sensor measuring bird activity.
ID: categorical variable denoting the bird identification
Sex: categorical variable denoting if a bird was male or female
Treatment: categorical variable denoting treatment group for birds housed individually. Levels of treatment include: ED/ED (enriched diet/enriched diet), RECR (Red Crossbill neighbors), SD/SD (standard diet/standard diet), and SD/ED (standard diet, enriched diet). The description to the left of the parentheses describes the diet of the individually housed birds and the description to the right described the diet of group-housed birds. See Figure 1 and methods of main text for more information.
night.date: date denoting the night summed activity data represent, in “mm/dd/yy” format
exp.day: day of the experiment relative to day 0
value: summed number of movements recorded by infrared sensors between 11pm and 3am
Sharing/access Information
These data are not publicly available in any other location.
Was data derived from another source?
No
The data were collected from captive pine siskins using morphological measurements and infrared sensors. Data from infrared sensors has been filtered so only specific times of day are included in summed activity values.
- Vernasco, Ben; Cornelius, Jamie; Watts, Heather (2024), Food and social cues modulate reproductive development but not migratory behavior in a nomadic songbird, the Pine Siskin (Pinus spinus), , Article, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10164365
- Vernasco, Ben; Cornelius, Jamie; Watts, Heather (2024), Food and social cues modulate reproductive development but not migratory behavior in a nomadic songbird, the Pine Siskin (Pinus spinus), , Article, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10164364
- Vernasco, Ben J; Cornelius, Jamie M; Watts, Heather E (2024). Food and social cues modulate reproductive development but not migratory behavior in a nomadic songbird, the Pine Siskin. Ornithology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukae006