No relationship between chronotype and timing of breeding when variation in daily activity patterns across the breeding season is taken into account

There is increasing evidence that individuals are consistent in the timing of their daily activities, and that individual variation in temporal behaviour is related to the timing of reproduction. However, it remains unclear whether observed patterns relate to the timing of the onset of activity or whether an early onset of activity extends the time that is available for foraging. This may then again facilitate reproduction. Furthermore, the timing of activity onset and offset may vary across the breeding season, which may complicate studying the above mentioned relationships. Here, we examined in a wild population of great tits (Parus major) whether an early clutch initiation date may be related to an early onset of activity and/or to longer active daylengths. We also investigated how these parameters are affected by the date of measurement. In order to test these hypotheses we measured emergence and entry time from/into the nest box as proxies for activity onset and offset in females d...