Parental behaviour of Common Terns (Sterna hirundo): sexual differences and changes in the course of the reproduction season

• Main Author: Sorokaitė, Jurgita
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Lithuanian; English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Common tern; (Sterna hirundo); Parental behaviour; Sex differences; Sterna hirundo
• Online Access: http://lmavb.lvb.lt/LMAVB:ELABAPDB5538016&prefLang=en_US

Differences and changes in the behaviour of females and males of Common Terns (Sterna hirundo) in the course of the reproduction season were studied in 2001-2003 in South Lithuania. During the incubation, hatching and chick raising periods, females spent more time incubating eggs and warming chicks than males, whereas the duration of other female activity (sleeping, feather cleaning, standing) in the nest territory was reliably greater than that of males in the chick raising period only; besides in the course of the reproduction season the duration of such other activity was increasing. During the hatching and chick raising periods, the occurrence of agonistic contacts of females with other adult birds was more frequent than that of males, whereas the frequency of female agonistic contacts with alien chicks was higher in the chick raising period only. Males, as a rule, brought food to chicks more frequently than females. The comparison of frequency of bringing food to the same chick in case of two-chick and three-chick broods did not show any reliable difference between males and females. Key words:.