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Full-Text Articles in Animal Sciences
Development Of Temperature Regulation In Nestling Tree Swallows, Richard Marsh
Development Of Temperature Regulation In Nestling Tree Swallows, Richard Marsh
Richard Marsh
No abstract provided.
Nestling Tree Swallow (Tachycineta Bicolor) Diets In An Upland Old Field In Western Michigan, Matthew Johnson, Michael Lombardo
Nestling Tree Swallow (Tachycineta Bicolor) Diets In An Upland Old Field In Western Michigan, Matthew Johnson, Michael Lombardo
Michael P Lombardo
We collected and identified 1852 prey items from 89 boluses delivered to 62 nestling tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) at 14 nests in an upland old field in western Michigan. We found that 90.8% of nestling diets was insects from the Orders Diptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera and Coleoptera. We also found clam and snail shells in boluses. Over the most common brood sizes of 4-6 nestlings, brood size was inversely proportional to the number of items per bolus delivered to nestlings although mean dry and mean organic weight of boluses did not differ. Bolus composition was not influenced by weather …
Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During Tree Swallow Copulations, Aaron Petersen, Michael Lombardo, Harry Power
Left-Sided Directional Bias Of Cloacal Contacts During Tree Swallow Copulations, Aaron Petersen, Michael Lombardo, Harry Power
Michael P Lombardo
Most female birds have only a left ovary and associated oviduct with entry to the oviduct on the left side of the urodeum of the cloaca. We hypothesized that male cloacal contacts during copulation would occur from the left side of females because this would put sperm closer to the entrance of the oviduct. We observed that cloacal contacts from the left outnumbered those from the right by a margin of 3:1 during tree swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, copulations at nestboxes in western Michigan in 1999. The directional bias of cloacal contacts may have an adaptive function.