Ecological release and insular shifts in avian morphological traits in the Caribbean

We compared support for 3 hypotheses that might explain observed morphological variation among islands of 4 1.70 species of Caribbean land birds: ecological release from competition and predation pressure, predation pressure from 1 novel predator species (small Indian mongoose, Herpestes auropunctatus), and climate. We measured wing chord, tarsus length, bill length, and mass of Bananaquits (Coereba flaveola), Black-faced Grassquits (Tiaris bicolor), Lesser Antillean Bullfinches (Loxigilla noctis), and Common Ground Doves (Columbina passerina) in Grenada, 2015–2017, and combined these measures with data from 23 other Caribbean islands collated from academic papers and researchers, for a total sample size of 6,518 individuals. We found the strongest support for the ecological release hypothesis, but each of our hypotheses received some support, suggesting that ecological release from competition, predation pressure from mongoose, and climate may all interact to influence morphological ad..., , Individuals aged using a cycle-based aging system (see Wolfe et al. 2010 for details)., # Data from: Ecological release and insular shifts in avian morphological traits in the Caribbean

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8931zcrqh](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8931zcrqh)

## Description of the data and file structure

**Grenada_2015_TO_2017_avian_morphology.csv**

1. Date of data collection: 2015-11-17 to 2017-03-01
2. Geographic location of data collection: Grenada, 12.1186°N, 61.6898°W
3. Design: There were no experimental conditions in this study. We used mist nets to capture land birds, and banded and measured them, over 3 visits to Grenada from November 2015 to March 2017. We sampled birds at 4 sites in mid-elevation habitats typical of Grenada, including home gardens, mixed orchards (e.g., Citrus spp., Persea americana, Musa spp., Mangifera spp.), mixed species forests (semi-deciduous and evergreen broadleaf), and cocoa plantations (Theobroma cacao). These sites were situated within an elevational range of 30–200 m, and due to this relatively small elevational gradi...