Coordination of care reduces conflict and predation risk in a cooperatively breeding bird

When two or more individuals cooperate to provision a shared brood, each carer may be able to maximize their payoffs by coordinating provisioning in relation to what others are doing. This investment ‘game’ is not simply a matter of how much to invest, but also of the relative timing of investment. Recent studies propose that temporal coordination of care in the forms of alternation (i.e. turn-taking) and synchrony (i.e. provisioning together) function to mitigate conflict between carers and reduce brood predation risk, respectively. Such coordination is widespread in biparental and cooperatively breeding birds, yet the fitness consequences have rarely been empirically tested. Here, we use a long-term study of long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus, a facultative cooperatively breeding bird with active coordination of care, to assess the support for these hypothesized functions for coordination of provisioning visits. First, we found evidence that turn-taking mitigates conflict between ca..., Methods
Study system and general field protocol
Data were collected during the breeding seasons (March–June) of 1994–2022 from an intensively studied wild population of long-tailed tits (Rivelin Valley, UK; c.3km2; 53°23′N, 1°34′W). Nests were located by following adults building nests, typically in low-lying (≤3m) shrubs (c.73% of nests; Higgot 2019) such as Rubus fruticosus, but sometimes in inaccessible tree forks. Nests were monitored at 1–3 day intervals but daily approaching incubation, hatching, and fledging. Incubation starts once the clutch is complete, lasts c.15 days, and all eggs that hatch do so within 24h of the first. After hatching (d0), both parents deliver prey items, such as flies, spiders, and caterpillars. Helpers may join a group at any point between hatching and fledging (d16–18), although helping is more common later in development. Long-tailed tits suffer only minimal chick starvation (0.2% daily per chick; Hatchwell et al. 2004) but lose 71.9% of clutches and b..., , This README.md file was generated on XX-XX-2024 by Chay Halliwell

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: 'Data for: Coordination of care improves reproductive success by increasing investment and reducing predation risk in a cooperative bird.'
2. Author Information
Corresponding Investigator
Name: Dr. Chay Halliwell
Institution: University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Co-investigator 1
Name: Prof. Andrew P. Beckerman
Institution: University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Co-investigator 2
Name: Dr. Samatha Patrick
Institution: University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Co-investigator 3
Name: Prof. Ben J. Hatchwell
Insitution: University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:b.hatch...