BREEDING BIOLOGY OF THE TAIWAN BARBET (MEGALAIMA NUCHALIS) IN TAIPEI BOTANICAL GARDEN

We studied the breeding biology of the Taiwan Barbet
(Megalaima nuchalis) in the Taipei Botanical Garden (TBG) during
the 2008 and 2009 breeding seasons. Breeding pairs produced a
mean of 1.8 broods per season and had a mean clutch size of 3.0
eggs. The mean incubation period was 13.8 days, and both parents
shared incubation. The mean nestling period was ,27.5 days,
considerably shorter than that of other Asian barbets. The
shorter nestling period may be related to the low fledgling
success rate, multiple broods per season, and constant animal
matter food in TBG throughout the entire nesting period. Ambient
temperature influenced the amount of time spent by adults inside
the nest cavity incubating eggs and brooding nestlings. Adult
males provided more food to nestlings than adult females, while
adult females cleaned the nest more often than males. The
overall egg-to-fledgling success rate was low, 32.8%, because of
infertile eggs and failure of eggs with embryos to hatch,
abandonment, anthropogenic disturbances, predation, weather
disturbances, and other unknown factors. Received 7 January
2010. Accepted 15 April 2010.