Ambient temperature and female body condition are related to night incubation behavior in wood ducks (Aix sponsa)

For many animals, parental care behavior is an important aspect of their life history that affects both parents and offspring. In birds, one of the most important parental care behaviors is incubation, which is costly to the parent but directly influences embryonic development and fitness of offspring. Some birds exhibit the intriguing behavior of partially incubating their eggs prior to clutch completion for only a portion of each day. This partial incubation is characterized by lower incubation temperatures and constancy than during full-time incubation, which typically begins at clutch completion. Partial incubation may preserve the viability of eggs laid early in the laying sequence, shorten the length of the full incubation period, and/or provide a favorable microclimate to the incubating parent. It might also reduce the probability of nest predation, nest site takeover by another bird, brood parasitism, and/or predation of the adult. Although there is evidence that partial incubat...