Data for: Social network data in wild great tits during ontogeny

Sociality impacts many biological processes and is tightly linked to an individual’s fitness. To maximize advantages of group living, many social animals exhibit preferences for associating with individuals that provide the most benefits, such as kin, familiar individuals or those of similar phenotype. Such social strategies are not necessarily stable over time but can vary with changing selection pressures. In particular, young individuals transitioning to independence should continuously adjust their social behavior in light of developmental changes. However, social strategies exhibited during adolescence in animals are understudied and the factors underlying social network formation during ontogeny remain elusive. Here, we tracked associations of wild great tits (Parus major) during transition to independence and across their first year of life. Both spatial and social factors were predictors of dyadic associations, with fledglings initially preferring to associate with siblings and ..., The study took place in the woodland around the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Radolfzell, Germany (47.76811, 8.99652 [WGS84]) as part of a long-term project on social behavior in wild great tits. Tits were caught in mist nets throughout the year and equipped with a metal leg ring issued by the Radolfzell Bird Observatory and a unique passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag (Eccel Technology, EM4102) for long-term identification, then sexed and aged based on plumage (Svensson 1992). To study their breeding behavior we provided 207 nest boxes (Schwegler type 1B, 2M, 3SV) across the woodland. During the breeding season (early April until June 2020), nest boxes were monitored at least twice per week, recording nest stages, clutch sizes, start of incubation, and hatch and fledge dates of nestlings. Breeding pairs were identified four days after chick hatching with a built-in RFID antenna around the entrance hole of a faceplate logger (Naturecounters Ltd.) that recorded PIT tags..., , # The ontogeny of social networks in wild great tits (Parus major)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x95x69ps8](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x95x69ps8)

## File structure

This repository contains files of three types:

**1) Code:**

* **flock formation analysis.R**: contains all the code necessary to reproduce the analyses and create the figures

**2) Data:**

* **Mill.data.summer/autumn/winter/spring.txt**: These four files contain the raw visitation data at network feeders collected across the four seasons. Columns incude:

* Date.Time: date and time in format *yymmddHHMMSS*
* Antennae: \"M\" or \"A\" for main and auxiliary RFID antennae on each feeder
* PIT: unique alphanumeric passive integrated transponder tag of each bird
* location: Mill1-6 for designating where the feeder was placed within the study area (see Figure 1 in main MS)
* week: experimental week within the season (1-14 for summer; 1-3 each for autumn, winter, spring)
* **species_age.txt:...