{"id":{"repo_id":"birmingham","oai_identifier":"oai:etheses.bham.ac.uk:1351"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/birmingham/oai:etheses.bham.ac.uk:1351","repository":{"repo_id":"birmingham","name":"University of Birmingham","base_url":"https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/cgi/oai2"},"display":{"title":"From nest building to life-history patterns: does food supplementation influence reproductive behaviour of birds?","abstract":"Supplementary feeding wild birds is a widespread phenomenon. Recently, non-governmental organisations have recommended that the bird-feeding public should feed wild birds throughout the breeding season. Currently, such recommendations are not supported by a large body of research findings to suggest that food supplementation has benefits for breeding birds. To investigate this further I provided two commercially available wild bird foods (peanut cake and mealworms [Tenebrio molitor]) to Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Great Tits (Parus major) breeding in a woodland in Central England from 2007 to 2009. Supplementary feeding significantly advanced nest construction and decreased brood provisioning rates for both species. Supplemented Blue Tits significantly decreased daily incubation activity and increased both the proportion of extra-pair young and proportion of males per brood while supplemented Great Tits decreased incubation recess lengths. Analyses of data from the British Trust for Ornithology’s Nest Record Scheme suggested that probable widespread supplementary feeding of both Blue and Great Tits in urban habitats from 1962 to 2008 influenced breeding parameters across the study period but measuring food availability across wide spatial scales remains problematic. I discuss the implications of my results within an urban garden bird feeding context and provide suggestions for future research.","abstract_html":"Supplementary feeding wild birds is a widespread phenomenon. Recently, non-governmental organisations have recommended that the bird-feeding public should feed wild birds throughout the breeding season. Currently, such recommendations are not supported by a large body of research findings to suggest that food supplementation has benefits for breeding birds. To investigate this further I provided two commercially available wild bird foods (peanut cake and mealworms [Tenebrio molitor]) to Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Great Tits (Parus major) breeding in a woodland in Central England from 2007 to 2009. Supplementary feeding significantly advanced nest construction and decreased brood provisioning rates for both species. Supplemented Blue Tits significantly decreased daily incubation activity and increased both the proportion of extra-pair young and proportion of males per brood while supplemented Great Tits decreased incubation recess lengths. Analyses of data from the British Trust for Ornithology’s Nest Record Scheme suggested that probable widespread supplementary feeding of both Blue and Great Tits in urban habitats from 1962 to 2008 influenced breeding parameters across the study period but measuring food availability across wide spatial scales remains problematic. I discuss the implications of my results within an urban garden bird feeding context and provide suggestions for future research.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Smith, Jennifer Alison"],"institution":"University of Birmingham","degree_name":"d_ph","degree_level":"d_ph","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-07","date_published":"2011-07","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:11:29Z","subjects":["QH301 Biology","QH Natural history"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.grantnumber","label":"Dc Identifier Grantnumber","values":["Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) studentship NER/S/A/2006/14054","British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) CASE studentship award","NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility-Sheffield (NBAF-S) grant (MGF/331)."],"render_values":[{"text":"Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) studentship NER/S/A/2006/14054","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) CASE studentship award","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility-Sheffield (NBAF-S) grant (MGF/331).","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.sponsor","label":"Sponsor","values":["other","nerc"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Smith, Jennifer Alison"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-07"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2011-07"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["College of Life & Environmental Sciences","School of Biosciences"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Birmingham"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1351/"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["d_ph"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["d_ph"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["QH301 Biology","QH Natural history"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.grantnumber","label":"Dc Identifier Grantnumber","values":["Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) studentship NER/S/A/2006/14054","British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) CASE studentship award","NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility-Sheffield (NBAF-S) grant (MGF/331)."]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1351/1/Smith11PhD.pdf","http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1351/2/Decl_IS_Smith11PhD.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Supplementary feeding wild birds is a widespread phenomenon. Recently, non-governmental organisations have recommended that the bird-feeding public should feed wild birds throughout the breeding season. Currently, such recommendations are not supported by a large body of research findings to suggest that food supplementation has benefits for breeding birds. To investigate this further I provided two commercially available wild bird foods (peanut cake and mealworms [Tenebrio molitor]) to Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Great Tits (Parus major) breeding in a woodland in Central England from 2007 to 2009. Supplementary feeding significantly advanced nest construction and decreased brood provisioning rates for both species. Supplemented Blue Tits significantly decreased daily incubation activity and increased both the proportion of extra-pair young and proportion of males per brood while supplemented Great Tits decreased incubation recess lengths. Analyses of data from the British Trust for Ornithology’s Nest Record Scheme suggested that probable widespread supplementary feeding of both Blue and Great Tits in urban habitats from 1962 to 2008 influenced breeding parameters across the study period but measuring food availability across wide spatial scales remains problematic. I discuss the implications of my results within an urban garden bird feeding context and provide suggestions for future research."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["From nest building to life-history patterns: does food supplementation influence reproductive behaviour of birds?"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.sponsor":["other","nerc"],"dc:creator":["Smith, Jennifer Alison"],"dc:date":["2011-07"],"dc:date.issued":["2011-07"],"dc:description.abstract":["Supplementary feeding wild birds is a widespread phenomenon. Recently, non-governmental organisations have recommended that the bird-feeding public should feed wild birds throughout the breeding season. Currently, such recommendations are not supported by a large body of research findings to suggest that food supplementation has benefits for breeding birds. To investigate this further I provided two commercially available wild bird foods (peanut cake and mealworms [Tenebrio molitor]) to Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) and Great Tits (Parus major) breeding in a woodland in Central England from 2007 to 2009. Supplementary feeding significantly advanced nest construction and decreased brood provisioning rates for both species. Supplemented Blue Tits significantly decreased daily incubation activity and increased both the proportion of extra-pair young and proportion of males per brood while supplemented Great Tits decreased incubation recess lengths. Analyses of data from the British Trust for Ornithology’s Nest Record Scheme suggested that probable widespread supplementary feeding of both Blue and Great Tits in urban habitats from 1962 to 2008 influenced breeding parameters across the study period but measuring food availability across wide spatial scales remains problematic. I discuss the implications of my results within an urban garden bird feeding context and provide suggestions for future research."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.grantnumber":["Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) studentship NER/S/A/2006/14054","British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) CASE studentship award","NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility-Sheffield (NBAF-S) grant (MGF/331)."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1351/1/Smith11PhD.pdf","http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1351/2/Decl_IS_Smith11PhD.pdf"],"dc:publisher.department":["College of Life & Environmental Sciences","School of Biosciences"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Birmingham"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby":["http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1351/"],"dc:subject":["QH301 Biology","QH Natural history"],"dc:title":["From nest building to life-history patterns: does food supplementation influence reproductive behaviour of birds?"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["d_ph"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["d_ph"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:11:29Z"}