Data for: Incubation behavior and nest predation rates for 21 songbird species studied in Borneo

The Skutch (1949) Hypothesis that nest predation risk constrains parental nest activity has important implications for the evolution of parental care strategies, but the required conditions for the hypothesis to operate have been questioned. We found the necessary conditions existed in a montane tropical bird community where 95.4% of predation events (n=456) occurred during daylight hours and almost all predators (n=224) were visually-oriented. Moreover, incubation strategies for 21 passerine species were explained by nest predation rates as proposed by the Skutch Hypothesis. Hourly rates of visits to the nest were lower among species with higher nest predation rates, and achieved in part by longer on- and off-bouts. Incubation attentiveness (percent of time incubating) does not necessarily affect parental nest activity and was not related to nest predation rates. Nest predation rates were greater in enclosed- than open-nesting species, counter to long-standing views. Moreover, nest pre..., , , Borneo 21spp keydata.csv
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Mean species data for the variables tested in the paper.

## Description of the data and file structure

Variables are as follows:

species = Latin scientific name

enclosed = a dummy variable for nest type, where 0 = open-nesting species, and 1 = enclosed-nesting species.

incactivity2 = Mean trips to and from the nest by any individual per hour during incubation.

onsec2 = duration in seconds of the average on-bout

offsec2 = duration in seconds of the average off-bout

attent2 = proportion of the total daily video time an adult was on the nest incubating.

mort = apparent annual adult mortality probability

incdpr = daily nest predation rate based on the Mayfield Maximum likelihood estimation during incubation

nstldpr = daily nest predation rate based on the Mayfield Maximum likelihood estimation during the nestling period

n/d = no data available for this trait.