Elsevier

Journal of Arid Environments

Volume 144, September 2017, Pages 212-215
Journal of Arid Environments

Trumpeter finches (Bucanetes githagineus) breeding at highlands have higher breeding success but a shorter breeding season

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.05.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We present breeding parameters of Trumpeter finches breeding at highlands.

  • Breeding season was shorter compared to lowlands.

  • Egg hatchability was higher.

  • Breeding success was higher.

  • No clear advantages to escape from global warming.

Abstract

One of the responses of arid-land birds to ongoing climate warming is to shift their ranges towards higher altitudes to track species climatic optima. As this can influence their life history traits, more information is needed on breeding output from these border populations. We studied the breeding biology of the Trumpeter finch (Bucanetes githagineus) during three years in the center of the Saharan Atlas (ca. 1400 m a.s.l). Compared to lowland populations, breeding season was shorter and egg hatchability lower, but breeding success higher, as the main difference regarding previous studies was the lack of predation in the 23 nests we monitored. This is an advantage for this arid-land species breeding at the limit of its altitudinal range. However, in the face on future climate warming, predator ranges are also expected to shift towards higher altitudes, thus minimizing this current advantage, while breeding limitations due to harsh weather could prevail, what could compromise population viability.

Introduction

One observed consequence of the ongoing climate warming is the massive shifts in species distribution ranges towards higher altitudes, in order to track species climatic optima (e.g., see Auer and King, 2014 for North American passerines). These shifts can imply important changes on species life history traits and, in turn, on their population dynamics. For instance, finches breeding at high elevations have smaller clutches and fewer broods per season, as well as longer incubation periods than their counterparts breeding at lowlands (Badyaev, 1997). Whereas the breeding biology of bird faunas from North America and Europe are well known, allowing for future projections, basic information on bird fauna from northern Africa is limited. A rich bird fauna dwells the Maghreb region, which is the southernmost border for several Palaearctic species and, in turn, it is the northernmost limit for other Afro-tropical species (Cramp and Perrins, 1994). The mountain ranges in this region, like the Saharan Atlas, are characterized by a sharp transition from the Mediterranean to an arid climate, offering traits, like diverse environmental structure, landscape heterogeneity, as well as its geographic proximity to the Iberian peninsula, that create an ideal framework for the study of biogeographical patterns (Tellería et al., 2014). This potential has been demonstrated with a recent study on two passerines, in which the authors found that winter climatic suitability for these species in the region will shift from lowlands to highlands by 2050 and 2070 (Tellería et al., 2016). However, little is known on the breeding biology of species dwelling the region beyond some classical works that offer valuable but limited data (typically only clutch size) on bird faunas from the region (Heim de Balsac and Mayaud, 1962, Etchécopar and Hüe, 1964).

One of the most characteristic birds from this semi-arid region is the trumpeter finch (Bucanetes githagineus, Lichtenstein, 1823), a small passerine distributed from the Canary Islands to the Middle East (Barrientos et al., 2009a, Barrientos et al., 2014). It has been recorded that populations in the northernmost limit of its range undergo annual fluctuations both in their range limits and in their breeding densities (Isenmann and Moali, 2000, Barrientos et al., 2009a, Barrientos et al., 2014), but nothing is known on their potential fluctuations in central populations breeding at the highest limit of its altitudinal range. Likewise, whereas breeding biology of this species has been studied in lowlands (220–260 m a.s.l) populations from South-eastern Iberian Peninsula or the Canary Islands (Barrientos et al., 2007, Barrientos et al., 2009b, Barrientos et al., 2009c), little is known on populations located in the highlands from the center of its range (Barrientos, 2015). We aim to investigate the breeding biology of a population of trumpeter finch breeding at high altitude (1330–1400 m a.s.l.), including timing of breeding, clutch size, hatching and fledging rates as well as breeding success. Additionally, we report data on egg dimensions, traits that were not studied in detail in previous works on this species (Cramp and Perrins, 1994). We expect that this new data on life history traits can contribute to improve forecasting on the consequences of arid-land birds breeding at higher altitudes as a response to global warming.

Section snippets

Material and methods

Our study was conducted in region of Ed-Dokhlia, in the north-eastern region of Djebel Amour (Aflou), Algeria (2° 10′ E; 34° 17’ N) during 2007–2009. This zone ranged from 1330 to 1400 m a.s.l.

Mean annual temperature was 11 °C, with a maximum in July (24 °C) and a minimum in January (2 °C), and annual rainfall around 350 mm. The dominant ecosystem is the steppe of alfa Stipa tenacissima L. (Poaceae) with presence of some scattered Phoenician juniper Juniperus phoenicea L. (Cupressaceae) and

Results

A total of 23 nests were monitored during the three breeding seasons. The nests were open-cups all of them built at the base of clumps of alfa on a rough ground, in slopes averaging 37°. This shrub was the only species used for nesting. Nests showed an outer diameter of 9.2 ± 3.4 cm, an inner diameter of 5.8 ± 2.1 cm and depth of 4.2 ± 1.2 cm.

The first clutches were recorded in the third week of March (Fig. 1), and total laying season extended for 43 days. The mean laying date was 33 ± 2, with

Discussion

The Trumpeter Finch is a steppe-land species that in our study area placed their nests under alfa clumps on steep slopes. Despite nesting in cliffs can be advantageous against predation (Barrientos et al., 2009b), we found no nests above the ground, which is a notable difference regarding previous studies (Barrientos et al., 2009b). However, the main singularity of our work was that we recorded no nest predation in our trumpeter finch population, whereas in other populations it reached 54–63% (

Acknowledgements

The study was financially supported by the Forest service's in Aflou-Algeria.

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Cited by (1)

  • Greenfinches nesting in algerian orchards delayed their breeding and produced less fledglings in the driest of two years

    2021, Journal of Arid Environments
    Citation Excerpt :

    Breeding success was lower in our study compared to greenfinches breeding in natural habitats from North Africa (Kouidri, 2013), and even lower when compared to urban greenfinches from Central Europe (Kosiński, 2001). The variation in breeding parameters of finches breeding in arid lands could be also related to biogeographical patterns (e.g., Barrientos et al., 2007; Kouidri et al., 2017). In summary, this study provides some novel data on the breeding biology of the greenfinches in orchards from Northeast Algeria.

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