Data from: Shy birds play it safe: personality in captivity predicts risk responsiveness during reproduction in the wild

Despite a growing body of evidence linking personality to life-history
variation and fitness, the behavioural mechanisms underlying these
relationships remain poorly understood. One mechanism thought to play a
key role is how individuals respond to risk. Relatively reactive and
proactive (or shy and bold) personality types are expected to differ in
how they manage the inherent trade-off between productivity and survival,
with bold individuals being more risk-prone with lower survival
probability, and shy individuals adopting a more risk-averse strategy. In
the great tit (Parus major), the shy–bold personality axis has been well
characterized in captivity and linked to fitness. Here, we tested whether
‘exploration behaviour’, a captive assay of the shy–bold axis, can predict
risk responsiveness during reproduction in wild great tits. Relatively
slow-exploring (shy) females took longer than fast-exploring (bold) birds
to resume incubation after a novel object, representing an unknown threat,
was attached to their nest-box, with some shy individuals not returning
within the 40 min trial period. Risk responsiveness was consistent within
individuals over days. These findings provide rare, field-based
experimental evidence that shy individuals prioritize survival over
reproductive investment, supporting the hypothesis that personality
reflects life-history variation through links with risk responsiveness.