Nesting data from 42 Arabian Babbler (Argya squamiceps) nests

Human villages in deserts can provide resources in an otherwise stark environment, potentially buffering against extreme environmental conditions. It is thus expected that breeding within these villages would result in higher fitness. However, choosing to raise offspring in these resource-rich environments may have unintended negative consequences. Here, we studied the breeding success of a cooperative breeding bird nesting in habitats with different levels of human disturbance – the Arabian babbler (Argya squamiceps), in the Negev desert of Israel. We recorded 42 breeding attempts from 15 groups between March and July, 2022. We examined overall breeding success, brood size, and causes of nest failure. When nestlings were 6-days old we also calculated daily change in body mass and adult provisioning rate. We found that despite higher resource abundance in villages, proximity to villages did not affect provisioning rate, and nestling gained less mass at higher temperatures for all nests. Currently, there is no evidence that human villages are providing oases for nesting babblers. Nevertheless, various conservation interventions (e.g. encouraging residents to keep cats indoors) could improve babblers' overall fitness. Ultimately, we highlight how for some desert specialists, additional resources provided by humans may not do enough to counter potential negative effects.

Methods
Nests were monitored daily using remote motion-activated security cameras with 4G uplink via a SIM card (Reolink Go Plus 4G, Reolink USA) directly through the Reolink smartphone app (©Reolink). Nest cameras were placed on nests found at any stage (building, eggs, nestlings) and were left in place until a few days after the nest reached completion (either failing or succeeding). The cameras used wide-angle lenses, and so needed to be placed close to nests (~30 cm), but initial observations showed that babblers spent < 5 min investigating the camera before resuming normal activity (e.g. brooding, incubating, feeding). We masked the cameras’ infra-red lights to reduce/eliminate attention to the nest when cameras were triggered by motion at night.