An extreme type of brood overlapping in wild-living birds

Figures & data

Figure 1. Photos from trail camera showing consecutive stages of egg laying in the Great Tit nest with Single Nest Brood Overlapping (nest box no. B038).

Table I. Information on the occurrence and characteristics of Single Nest Brood Overlapping (SNBO) recorded in populations of wild birds. Explanations: ~ – estimation; N/A – not applicable; - – no data; values spaced with a hyphen – ranges; values in parentheses - percent

Species	Localization	No. of SNBO (% of 2nd broods)	No. of 2nd broods	No. of 2nd brood eggs before fledging/total	No./age [days] of 1st brood nestlings	Reference
Great Tit	Germany	1 (10)	10	6/6	6/~13–15	Berndt (1938)
Great Tit	Germany	1 (8)	12	2/-	-/16	Rheinwald (1971)
Great Tit	Germany	N/A	N/A	4/4^a	2/17	Winkel (1980)
Great Tit	Germany	0 (0)	62	N/A	N/A	Winkel (1975)
Great Tit	Sweden	0 (0)	94	N/A	N/A	Orell and Ojanen (1983)
Great Tit	Poland	7/(~28)	~25	2–6/-	4–7/17–19	Surmacki and Podkowa (this study)
Coal Tit	Germany	12 (34)	35	~1–4/-	-	Winkel (1975)
Coal Tit	Germany	2 (10)	20	-	-	Löhrl (1977)
Blue Tit	Germany	0 (0)	7	N/A	N/A	Winkel (1975)
Tree Sparrow	Germany	1 (-)	-	6/6	1^b/-	Berndt and Frieling (1939)
House Sparrow	USA	8 (-)	-	1–5/1–5	1–3/4–15	Lowther (1979)
Lead-colored Bush-tit	USA	1 (-)	-	4 or 5/-	~7–8^b/-	van Rossem (1936)
Eastern Bluebird	USA	1 (-)	-	4/4	2/11	Gowaty (1983)
Stock Dove	Germany	2^c (-)	2	2/2	2/-	Kühlke and Rudat (1981)
Stock Dove	the Netherlands	1 (-)	1	2/2	2/24^d	Bom (2016)

^aEggs were presumably incubated by a female, but the clutch was eventually deserted.

^bThe exact number of nestlings at the time of egg laying is unknown.

^cBoth SNBO cases concern the same female, which raised three consecutive broods in the same tree hole.

^dThe SNBO occurred between 2nd and 3rd brood. Eggs were laid five days before fledging.

Table II. Characteristics of Single Nest Brood Overlapping (SNBO) recorded in a Polish population of Great Tits. The date of egg laying and hatching is the date when the first egg in the clutch was laid and hatched, respectively. The date of fledging is the date when the last fledgling left the nest box

	First brood			Second brood
Nest box ID (Year)	Date of egg laying(No. of eggs laid)	Date of hatching(No. of eggs hatched)	Date offledging	Date of egglaying	No. of eggs laid beforefledgling/total	No./age [days] of 1stbrood fledglings
B002 (2016)	April 16 (11)	May 10 (10)	May 29	May 28	2/3	7/18
B094 (2016)	April 16 (11)	May 10 (10)	May 28	May 27	2/3	5/17
B149 (2016)	April 15 (6)	May 8 (3)	May 29	May 25	5/5	5/17
B146 (2016)	April 9 (8)	May 6 (7)	May 26	May 24	3/5	7/18
B085 (2017)	April 5 (11)	April 30 (5)	May 23	May 18	6/?^a	4/18
B157 (2017)	April 3 (12)	April 30 (6)	May 24	May 19	4/6	5/19
B038 (2018)	April 18 (5)	May 10 (4)	May 26	May 28	4/9	4/18

^aThe exact number of eggs is not known. Female attended the nest for three days after fledging, but she covered eggs with nest material.

Figure 2. The occurrence of Single Nest Brood Overlapping in relation to the number of fledglings in the first brood. Explanations: point = median, box = 25–75% quartiles, whiskers = minimum and maximum values. Numbers above boxplots are sample sizes.

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