Upcycling in the Hawaiian Islands: Native forest birds commonly engage in nest material kleptoparasitism

Nest material theft (or nest material kleptoparasitism) occurs when birds steal nesting material from other nests. This behavior is likely much more common for songbirds than it has been reported in the literature. While the benefits to the thief of stealing nesting material are evident (may decrease time spent foraging for suitable nesting supplies), gaps in our knowledge exist as to when we should expect to observe the thieving behavior. Here are nest height data, species involved in nest material kleptoparasitism, and timing of the nest material theft. These behavioral observations occurred in 2012 as part of a larger bird survey at sites on the Island of Hawaii. In this study, we investigate the species involved (both thief and victim/donor), whether the donor nest was active/inactive, and the height of the nests involved for species of common Hawaiian forest birds. Our study suggests that nest material theft may be a small but often overlooked contributing factor to nest failu..., , # Data from: Upcycling in the Hawaiian Islands: Native forest birds commonly engage in nest material kleptoparasitism

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.7pvmcvf53](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7pvmcvf53)

## Study Summary

This study documents instances of nest material kleptoparasitism by native Hawaiian birds across a patchwork of naturally fragmented forests (kīpuka) on Hawaii Island. We investigate two (non-mutually exclusive) hypotheses posited to explain nest material kleptoparasitism: (1) the height overlap hypothesis, and (2) the shared materials hypothesis. We provide details as to the identities, height, and substrate for 39 instances of nest material kleptoparasitism.

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset is from the manuscript \"Upcycling in the Hawaiian Islands: Native forest birds commonly engage in nest material kleptoparasitism\" and provides the data analyzed in this manuscript (data can be found in file: nest.height.klepto.dataDRYAD.csv).

**#nest mater...,