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cje ›› 2011, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (07): 1575-1578.

• Articles • Previous Articles    

Reproductive strategies of Great Tit and Willow Tit in artificial nest boxes in Xiaolongmen forest park of Beijing.

CHENG Cheng1,2, LIANG Wei2, ZHANG Zi-hui1**   

  1. 1College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;2College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China
  • Online:2011-07-08 Published:2011-07-08

Abstract: From March to July 2009, an investigation was conducted to compare the reproductive parameters of Great Tit (Parus major) and Willow Tit (P. montanus) in artificial nest boxes in Xiaolongmen forest park of Beijing. A total of 100 nest boxes were hung at forest edge, 19 and 11 of which were occupied by P. major and P. montanus, respectively. The clutch size of P. major (8.21±0.25 eggs, n=19) was much larger than that of P. montanus  (6.18±0.23 eggs, n=11), but the hatching period of P. major (13617±0.83 d, n=12) was shorter than that of P. montanus (14.22±0.44 d, n=10) (P<0.01). There were no significant differences on the egg mass, egg size, nestling success, and fledging success between the two tit species (P>0.05). The nesting success of P. montanus (54.5%, n=11) was much higher than that of P. major (27.0%, n=19). It was suggested that P. major could have higher clutch size but lower fledging success, while P. montanus could have lower clutch size but higher fledging success.

Key words: Nutrient recycling and reutilization, Long term field experiment, Soil nutrient budget