Diet and provisioning rate differ predictably between dispersing and philopatric pied flycatchers

Dispersal is an essential process for most animal populations to persist in changing environments. Dispersers are often a non-random sample of the population, and differ consistently from non-dispersers in a suite of correlated phenotypic traits (‘dispersal syndromes’). This phenotypic integration is thought to be adaptive. Here, we investigate whether dispersal tendency of individual pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) covaries with a set of repeatable behaviors that should confer advantages for surviving and reproducing in novel environments. We specifically focus on the link between dispersal, foraging behavior and aggressiveness because selection on foraging tactics or social behaviors likely differs between individuals staying in familiar or dispersing to novel environments. Using repeated measures of nestling provisioning data of pied flycatcher parents in one year, we tested if immigrants and philopatric individuals (local recruits and experienced breeders) differed in diet spe...