Data from: Experimental manipulation of avian social structure reveals segregation is carried over across contexts

Our current understanding of animal social networks is largely based on
observations or experiments that do not directly manipulate associations
between individuals. Consequently, evidence relating to the causal
processes underlying such networks is limited. By imposing specified rules
controlling individual access to feeding stations, we directly manipulated
the foraging social network of a wild bird community, thus demonstrating
how external factors can shape social structure. We show that
experimentally imposed constraints were carried over into patterns of
association at unrestricted, ephemeral food patches, as well as at nesting
sites during breeding territory prospecting. Hence, different social
contexts can be causally linked, and constraints at one level may have
consequences that extend into other aspects of sociality. Finally, the
imposed assortment was lost following the cessation of the experimental
manipulation, indicating the potential for previously perturbed social
networks of wild animals to recover from segregation driven by external
constraints.