Apparent annual survival estimates of tropical songbirds better reflect life history variation when based on intensive field methods

Aim: Adult survival is central to theories explaining latitudinal gradients in life history strategies. Life history theory predicts higher adult survival in tropical than north temperate regions given lower fecundity and parental effort. Early studies were consistent with this prediction, but standard-effort netting studies in recent decades suggested that apparent survival rates in temperate and tropical regions strongly overlap. Such results do not fit with life history theory. Targeted marking and resighting of breeding adults yielded higher survival estimates in the tropics, but this approach is thought to overestimate survival because it does not sample social and age classes with lower survival. We compared the effect of field methods on tropical survival estimates and their relationships with life history traits. Location: Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Time period: 2008–2016. Major taxon: Passeriformes. Methods: We used standard-effort netting and resighted individuals of all soc...