Effects of the social and physical environment on avian nest construction

  • Alexis J Breen

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis (PhD)

Abstract

In this thesis I examine the effects of the social and physical environment on nest construction in captive zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata, based entirely on experimental laboratory work. I focused primarily on three aspects of nest construction: material handling, material preference for first-time nest construction, and first-time nest-construction competence (the speed of nest-construction initiation and completion, and the number of material drops), either through a developmental or a reproductive lens. I found that the early environment influenced all three of these aspects of zebra finches’ nest construction: juvenile birds housed with (versus without) an adult conspecific were more likely to have handled, and spent more time handling, provided material—at least in the first half of 12 hour-long material-access opportunities; juvenile access to an adult plus material led birds to prefer this same material for constructing their first nest (over their natal or a novel material); and, social and material ‘impoverishment’ during juvenilehood led birds to be both slower to initiate and complete first-time nest construction. I did not, however, find that the early environment influenced zebra finches’ propensity to use social information: observational experience of a nest (a social ‘artefact’) led birds to lose their material preference for first-time nest construction irrespective of whether they were tested in a novel or their natal environment. Finally, I also found that raw-material properties (rigidity) affected the optimal nest-construction investment (pieces of material used) by zebra finches with respect to their fitness returns (number of chicks fledged); that is, higher fledgling numbers were associated with nests that contained fewer or more pieces of 15 cm lengths of stiff or flexible string, respectively. Together these experimental data identify social (adult presence and construction artefacts) and environmental (material access and raw-material properties) drivers, in both early and adult life, involved in zebra finches’ nest construction.
Date of Award24 Jun 2019
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of St Andrews
SupervisorLauren Guillette (Supervisor) & Susan Healy (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Animal construction
  • Nest building
  • Social learning
  • Cognition

Access Status

  • Full text open

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