Data from: Rainfall during parental care reduces reproductive and survival components of fitness in a passerine bird

Adverse weather conditions during parental care may have direct
consequences for offspring production, but longer-term effects on juvenile
and parental survival are less well known. We used long-term data on
reproductive output, recruitment, and parental survival in northern
wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe) to investigate the effects of rainfall
during parental care on fledging success, recruitment success (juvenile
survival), and parental survival, and how these effects related to
nestling age, breeding time, habitat quality, and parental nest visitation
rates. While accounting for effects of temperature, fledging success was
negatively related to rainfall (days > 10 mm) in the second half of
the nestling period, with the magnitude of this effect being greater for
breeding attempts early in the season. Recruitment success was, however,
more sensitive to the number of rain days in the first half of the
nestling period. Rainfall effects on parental survival differed between
the sexes; males were more sensitive to rain during the nestling period
than females. We demonstrate a probable mechanism driving the rainfall
effects on reproductive output: Parental nest visitation rates decline
with increasing amounts of daily rainfall, with this effect becoming
stronger after consecutive rain days. Our study shows that rain during the
nestling stage not only relates to fledging success but also has
longer-term effects on recruitment and subsequent parental survival. Thus,
if we want to understand or predict population responses to future climate
change, we need to consider the potential impacts of changing rainfall
patterns in addition to temperature, and how these will affect target
species' vital rates.