Data from: Low heritability of nest construction in a wild bird

In birds and other taxa, nest construction varies considerably between and within populations. Such variation is hypothesized to have an adaptive (i.e. genetic) basis, but estimates of heritability in nest construction are largely lacking. Here, we demonstrate with data collected over 10 years of 1010 nests built by blue tits in nest boxes that nest size (height of nest material) and nest composition (proportion of feathers in the nest) are repeatable but only weakly (12-13%) heritable female traits. These findings imply that nest construction may evolve but only if subjected to strong and consistent selection pressures.在鸟类及其他分类群（taxa）中，营巢行为在种群间与种群内部均存在显著变异。此类变异被假设具有适应性（即遗传）基础，但目前关于营巢行为可遗传性（heritability）的定量估算仍较为匮乏。本研究依托10年间收集的、蓝山雀在人工巢箱中筑造的1010个巢的数据，证实巢的大小（巢材高度）与巢的组成（巢内羽毛占比）均为可重复的雌性性状，但其可遗传性仅为12%~13%，处于较低水平。上述研究结果表明，营巢行为或可发生演化，但仅在受到强烈且持续的选择压力时才会得以实现。