Data from: Experience counts: the role of female age in morning incubation and brooding behavior in relation to temperature

Reproductive experience can impact how individuals allocate time and
energy to reproduction and generate differences in reproductive behavior
that leads to experience dependent variation in reproductive success. In
order to understand if individual variation in parental behavior is
related to environmental temperature and breeding experience, we observed
the timing and duration of the first morning off bout in a wild, open cup
nesting passerine bird during the incubation and early nestling period. We
compared incubation behaviors and nest temperature of inexperienced
(second year = first breeding season) and experienced (after second year)
female hooded warblers Setophaga citrina. Females left the nest earlier on
colder mornings suggesting an energetic constraint due to the long
overnight on bout during colder temperatures. During incubation, females
increased the duration of the first morning off bout with increasing
temperature. Similarly, during the early nestling period, experienced
females had shorter off bout duration on colder mornings and increased
duration with warmer temperatures. In contrast, inexperienced females
increased off bout duration with colder morning temperatures. Experienced
females maintained higher nest temperatures and higher minimum nest
temperatures compared to inexperienced females. We also found evidence
that experienced females nested in microhabitats with higher minimum
morning temperature which may buffer older females from colder daily
extremes and enable older females to maintain higher nest temperatures.
While we found no relationship between incubation and brooding behaviors
and fledging success, the proportion of the clutch that hatched was
positively related to minimum nest temperature. The ability of experienced
females to maintain higher minimum nest temperatures and to adjust
brooding behaviors during colder mornings is a potential mechanism that
has consequences for nestling condition in a wild population. Our results
highlight the need to examine experience related parental care behaviors
in responding to environmental variation.