Nesting of the White-Rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus) In southern Vietnam

2011·4.7 MB·English

by  I V Palko

NESTING OF THE WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA
(COPSYCHUS MALABARICUS) IN SOUTHERN VIETNAM
I.V. Palko13, M.V. Kalyakin23, & N.V.Thinh3
1A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, RussianAcademy of Science,
Leninsky Prosp., 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia
2Zoological museum of Moscow Lomonosov State University,
Bolshaya Nikitskaya Str., 6, Moscow, 125009, Russia
3JointVietnamese-RussianTropical Centre,
Ho Chi Minh City, N 3, Street3/2, 10 District, Vietnam
ABSTRACT
WedescribenestingoftheWhite-rumpedShama(Copsychusmalabaricus) inartificialandnaturalnestcavitiesinlowland
tropical forestandserai stagehabitats atCatTienNational Parkand Biosphere ReserveinsouthernVietnam.Thedata
was collected from March 7 untilJuly7 in 2008 in CatTien National Park, SouthVietnam, on 168 artificial nesting
boxes.AlltakennestboxeswereoccupiedonlybyWhite-rumpedShama. Ittookupboxesinallstudiedhabitats: inthe
Lagerströemiaforest61.5%ofnestboxeswasoccupied,inshrubhabitat(lowbrushandbambootangles) 55.8%, andin
forestedges44.1%.Clutcheswerefoundin73boxes(43.4%).Thefullclutchescontained 1-4eggs,mostofthem(62%)
had threeeggs. In average, thehatchingwas observed 13.4 days afteregg-laying.ThesizeofShamamale'sterritorywas
0.3 ha. Nest-building, brooding, feedingofyoung, nestpredation, interspecificcompetitionforbreedingsites in native
naturalhabitataredescribed.
Keywords:White-rumpedShama, Copsychus, artificialnestboxes, hole-nestingbirds,southern Vietnam.
INTRODUCTION species or small ecological or systematic groups on
selected forest plots. One ofthese plots was estab-
Thisstudyformspartofamajorecological research
lishedinCatTienBiosphereReserveinthesouthern
effort conducted by the Joint Russian-Vietnamese
Tropical Research and Technological Centre. The partofVietnam.
maingoalforthescientificprogramofthis Institute Nesting in holes is an interestingphenomenon,
is to study the diversity, structure and dynamics of especiallyintropicalforestwherepredationpressure
Vietnam'sforestecosystems. Ornithologicalresearch andcompetition amonghole-users is assumedto be
was begun in 1989. During the earlyperiod ofop- high. Most hole-nesters in southeastAsian lowland
erations,mostoftheworkinvolvedshort-termvisits tropical forest are nonpasserines: woodpeckers, bar-
toselectedforestsites. Laterwehadtheopportunity bets,hornbills, parakeets, owlsandtrogons. Mostof
to broaden our surveys to include all major forest thesespeciesnestinholesthatareinhighinthefor-
habitats throughout the country. As a result ofthis est canopy (> 10-15 m), so detailed study ofthe
work, wenowhave asolid understandingofthe di- nesting habits ofthese birds is not possiblewithout
versity of ornithological communities in different theuseofspecialtechniques.Hole-nestingpasserines
forest types ofVietnam and pilot data on trophic ofthe area ofstudy include two rather uncommon
niches and other aspects of the biology for most species of forest starlings (Common Hill-Mina
Vietnameseforestbirds.Withthissoundfoundation, Gracula religiosa and Golden-crested MynaAmpeli-
wearenowpreparedtofocusourattentiononlong- ceps coronatus), the Velvet-fronted Nuthatch (Sitta
terminvestigations ofthe biologyofindividual bird frontalis) andtwospeciesofthegenus Copsychus: the
White-rumped Shama (C malabaricus), one of the
Correspondingauthor:e-mail: [email protected] most common bird species in forests and forest
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BONNERZOOLOGISCHEMONOGRAPHIENNr.57/2011
edges in Vietnam; and the Oriental Magpie-Robin includeLagerströemiasp., Tetrameiesnudiflora,Aßelia
(Csaularis),alocallycommonbirdofforestborders. xylocarpa and characterized bysome disturbance by
The White-rumped Shama and the Oriental logging, a largely closed canopy, and considerable
Magpie-Robin are both insectivorous, middle-sized undergrowth; 43 boxes in shrubby, tree-lesshabitats
birds (Muscicapidae). Under natural conditions, with bamboo tangles (dominated by Poaceae and
shamasbuildcup-shapednestsinnaturalholesintree Zingiberaceae);and24boxesinforestedges,gardens,
trunks, tips ofstumps, or in the basal stem clumps andovergrownCashewandGrewiaplantationswith
ofbamboo.Magpie-robinsalsopreferhollowsinthe little closed-canopy. Later, at the end ofMay, an-
trunk ofa tree trunk, but often use different kinds other 10 boxeswere placed in the territoryofapair
offissures, e.g., interstices in cliffs or ricks ofaerial ofMagpie Robins locatedin forestedge.
roots (Collar 2005: 765-766, Siddique 2008). We We used blackwooden nest boxes, 28 cm high
chosehole-nestingbirdsforthisinitialstudybecause and 15 cm square. The hole diameter was 5.5 cm;
they present three advantages over open-nesting distance between it and top ofthe box was 11 cm.
m
species: 1) theyoftenwill accept artificial nest sites, Boxes were placed on middle-sized trees, 1.5-3
allowingtheresearchertosettheparametersfornest aboveground. Distance between boxes normally 50
location; 2) no nest-search is required; and 3) it is m, butsometimesless.
relativelysimple to associate aparticular pairwith a Nest boxes were regularly checked. All animals
specificnestsite. and their nests except the study species were re-
The main purpose ofour study was to try to moved. During the nest examination, all bird nests,
understandwhatfeaturesofthebiologyofthesetwo clutches and young were described and measured,
modelspeciesfavorhole-nestinginthisrichtropical fledglingswereringedbymetallicandcoloredplastic
forest ecosystem. To this end, we placed nest-boxes rings as well as adult birds which were trapped by
in differenthabitats around thestudyarea. mist-nets near the nest boxes (mainly females) or
sometimesdistanttheirnests (birds ofbothsexes).
MATERIALS AND METHODS We made observations near the nests and from
differentdistancestocollectdataaboutbird'sbehav-
The datawere collected from March 7 untilJuly 7
in 2008 in Cat Tien National Park and Biosphere ior but it was seen that our presence made some
Researve,Vietnam. CatTien is located 160 km NE artificial impact in it, and this partoftheworkwill
be modified in future studies. Also observations on
from Hochimin City, Dongnai Province, 11°25'N,
m 45hofbehavioralobservationswereaccumulatedon
107°25'E, c. 300 abovesealevel. Climate is typi-
malesofthreedifferentpairs, attimessupplemented
cally monsoon, with a wet season that usually in-
cludes the period from May orJune to October or bythestimulus ofsongplayback.
November. Meanannualtemperatureexceeds 18°C. RESULTS
Ourstudyplotwassituatedinaneasternpartof
the reserve in an area that is a mosaic oftall forest, During our first year ofwork, nest boxes were oc-
different types of forest edges, shrub habitat (low cupied onlybyone ofthe studyspecies, theWhite-
brush and bamboo tangles), and grasslands with a rumpedShamasoourdataontheMagpie-robinwere
fewremainingforesttrees,whichwascreatedbylog- limitedtoseveralobservationsofadultbirdsandone
ging in the 1970s and 1980s. Several small depres- recordofafledgling. Fortheshama,wewereableto
sions on the study area are flooded during the wet ringandmakeobservations on 28 adultfemales, 1
season fromJulyto October. adult males, and 154 nestlings. Shamas used nest
Artificialnestboxesprovideenhancedopportuni- boxes in all types ofhabitat with evidence ofsome
ties for intensive studies of hole-nesting species preference for tall forest (Fig. 2). The rather high
(Hume 1890,Gibsonetal. 1982),andpreviouswork breedingdensityin openareaswas asurpriseforus.
has indicated that ourstudyspecieswould use such One possible reasons for this behavior could have
sites (Aguon & Conant 1994, Lock Nga Yi 2000, been our provision ofnesting sites. Nest box occu-
Yip2006).Therefore,wedeterminedtouseartificial pancyratewasratherhigh:95of168boxesor56.5%
nest boxes in this study. In March of2008, we dis- were used by birds for nest building, and clutches
tributed 158nestboxesalong5transectsindifferent were found in 73 boxes (43.4%). The difference in
habitats (FIG. 1): 91 nest boxes in Lagerströemia boxesusedfornestconstructionasopposedtothose
forest, a habitat inwhich the dominant tree species used for egg-laying occured because adult males
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PALKO,NESTINGOFTHEWHITE-RUMPEDSHAMA(COPSYCHUSMALABAR/CVS)INSOUTHERNVIETNAM
FIG. 1. Scheme ofboxes distribution over different habitats. 1 - forest, 2 - bamboo, 3 - forest edges
(«garden»), 4-shrub habitat (lowbrushandbamboo tangles), 5 -Reserveoffice.
N, used boxes
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Forest Shrubby ticket Edges
n=91 n=43 n=34
Types of habitat
FIG. 2. Degreeofboxcolonization byWhite-rumped Shama in differenttypesofhabitat.
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BONNERZOOLOGISCHEMONOGRAPHIENNr.57/201
initiated nest construction in more than one box, incubationstartedafterthelasteggwaslaid. During
amongwhich femaleswouldselectone to complete this time the male doesn't feed the female, but he
&
nest building and laying of the clutch (Aguon spends his time not far from the nest. In one case a
Conant, 1994).Secondclutcheswereobservedin 19 male visited his nest box 4 times during hatching
nests (26%), and in two cases third clutches ofthe whenafemalewasabsent.Themalespentfrom40s
same pairswereregistered. to4min50sinthebox,anaverageof3.0min(n=4).
The density ofshama nests was highest in the Presumablyhevisited a nest box forassistingin the
Lagerströemia forest and shrub habitats. Majority hatchingprocess.
boxesinthe«garden»habitatwerenotused (Fig. 2). On average, hatching occurred 13.4 days after
In theLagerströemiaforest, shamas occupied 61.5% egg-laying (n=8). Observations of three nests (4
ofnestboxes (56 of91), in shrub habitats- 55.8 % hours per day) showed that the female did not take
(24 of43), andin forestedges-44.1% (15 of34). partinthefeedingofyoungduringthefirstfivedays
The first clutches were documented on March afterhatching. Shespentalmostall her time during
25, shortly after the boxes were put in place (8-20 this period brooding her young, whereas the male
March).Wedon'tknowtheenddateofnest-boxuse brought food for the chicks and, probably, for the
forshamareproductionbecausethestudywastermi- female. After the fifth day, the female helped in the
nated on 7July at a time when two new nests had feeding ofthe young, andwas just as active in this
recentlybeencompletedandoneboxstillcontained role as the male. The duration the nestling period
a 7-day old brood (Fig. 3). The minimal interval was 12—13 days, andthenyoungbirds leftthe nest.
between nest box hanging and occupation was 14 Fledglingsspentsometimetogetherwithparents:we
days in the «garden» habitat, 17 days in the forest registered a case offeeding the young one month
habitat, and 19 days inshrub habitats. laterfledging.
Mostofthefullclutchescontained3eggs (62%, Forthreeshamacouples, thenestingcyclelasted
n=58), 31% clutches (n=29) had 4 eggs, 4 clutches for 33-34 days (the time from beginning of nest
(5%) - 2 eggs, and 3 (2%) clutches — one egg buildingtillfledgling).Thetimeperiodfromtheend
(Fig. 4).Thefemalelaysoneeggperday. Permanent offledglingcareuntilthelayingofthefirsteggofthe
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PA1.KO.NESTINGOFTHEWHITE-RUMPEDSHAMA(COPSYC11USMAI.AHARICUS)INSOUTHERNVIETNAM
N, clutches
70%t
j
60%
1 I
50%
40%
30%
1 1
20%
12
10%
Q%\ EZ=3 L_J
, , 1 1 , 1 1
3 4
Number of eggs in a clutch
FIG. 4. Numberofeggs in aclutchWhite-rumpedShamain 2008.
secondclutchforthesecoupleslasted for22, 24, 24 the real rate ofcompetition may be lower, because
and 25 days. Intervals between the second and the someofcompetitorswerefoundinboxesaftershama
thirdclutcheswere 14 days and 15-16 days. breeding was successfully finished. The average
Clutch mortality was low: 14 of 94 shama breeding territory size (based on three males) was
clutchesweredestroyed (14.9%). Intwo nestboxes, 0.3 ha.
thefemaleshadbeenkilledtoo. Eightclutcheswere With help from colleagues we found six shama
destroyedpriortohatchingand6duringthenestling nests in natural cavities. Five of them were found
period. Some nest boxes were used by species that distributed in forest habitat, and one in a housing
could be predators on, or otherwise harm, shamas areaofthenational park. Ofthese natural nests,we
including: rats Niviventer, tree mice Chiropodomys were onlyable to studyone in detail. This nestwas
m
gliroides, tree-shrewsDendrogalemurina, bigspiders, built in a tiny hole ofa dry fallen branch (3 in
scolopendrasandscorpions. Inaddition,severalspe- length, 10 cm in diameter) that was drooped over
ciesofantsoccupiedvariousnestboxesaswellsome lianas about 1 m above the ground (Fig. 5). The
otherbirdspecies{Camponotussp., Crematogastersp., depthofthehollowwas24cm,distancebetweenthe
Diacamma rugosum, Monomorium sp., Anoplolepis nestandentrance- 18 cm. Othernestswereplaced
gracilipes). Interestingly, big black ants Polyrhachis in natural holes or cavities in 3-9 m above the
armata,whichalsooccupiednest-boxes,defendthem ground, and three ofthem were concealed by epi-
from all other animals including birds. Polyrhachis phytes {Dendrobiumsp.).
armata was registered in 25 boxes, and may be re- During the nest building the female shamas are
gardedasamajorcompetitorforshamasintermsof cautious (Aguon & Conant 1994). Based on our
hole use in our study area. Several boxes were also observations oftwo males and one female made in
usedbybees (threeboxes) andwasps (nineboxes). Lagerströemiaforestthemalesfirstbuildsaplatform
We tried to keep boxes free from the nesting of inside the hole usingdrybamboo or tree leaves and
insectsandmammalsaswellasfromanyothercom- other plant materials. In most cases, the males col-
petitors. During four months offield work, we re- lected materials near the nest, usually within three
movedcompetitorsfrom47boxes (28%). However, m.This processwas intensive, andlasted fortwo or
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BONNERZOOLOGISCHEMONOGRAPHIENNr.57/2011
FIG. 5. Shama's nest, builtin nativecavity; a—generalview, b-the nest.
three days. When the male was finished, we found this difference in numberofclutches perseasoncan
that there was a friable leafcushion on the bottom be explained by differences in the environment be-
ofthebox.Afterthat, the femaleaddedsomemate- tweensouthernVietnamandHawaii.
rialstostructure, preparingatrayofhyphae {Maras- Duringthebreedingseasonwefoundthat19out
miussp.), dry thin leafstalks and, sometimes, flakes of95occupiednestboxescontainedunfinishednests
ofdrysnakeskinorpolyethylene. Shealso collected (consistingofleavecushionsonly).Wesupposethat
materialnormallyfromnearbythenestbox(< 5 m), in these cases males built more than one nest for a
andfinishedherworkintwo-threedays.Intotal,nest female to choose from. According to the literature
buildingtakes4-7 days in shamas. male shamas build several nests simultaneously. A
female then chooses the most appropriate place for
DISCUSSION the nest among them (Aguon & Conant 1994).
We present data on shama clutch size, adult male, However, unfinishednests mightalso belongto un-
and female behavior in different stages ofbreeding, paired males.
phenologyofbreeding, andotherfeaturesoflifehis- Interestinglyshamas initiated breedingactivities
toryofthe species. Previously data on some aspects in the «garden» habitat earlier than in others. The
ofits breeding biologywere collected for a popula- numberofclutches increased in the first halfofthe
tionintroducedtoHawaiiIslands(Aguon&Conant breeding season and then gradually decreased. The
1994).WorkonthisHawiianpopulationfoundthat, histogram in Fig. 3 shows two small peaks, which
under natural conditions, birds from O'ahu Island may be related with both to initiation of second
lay only one or two clutches per season, although clutches bysomepairs. Probablythehighdensityof
captivebirdscouldraiseasmanyasfiveclutchesper nestboxoccupationisrelatedtobirdsgraduallyfind-
season. Inourresearchwefoundonlytwopairsout ing the newbreedingsites represented bytheplace-
of73 thathadathirdclutchperseason. Presumably mentoftheartificial nest boxes.
190
VWKO,MSriNGOFTHEWHITE-RUMPEDSHAMA{COPSYCHUSMALABARICUS)INSOUTHERNVI] IN\M
The densityofshama's nest box occupationwas ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
q(uEiutreohpiegahn.TRouscsoimap)arteh,e icnotmhemroenserhvoel«eB-rnyesatnisnkgyLpeass»- We would like to express our great gratitude to the
administratorstheJointRussian-VietnameseTropical
serine, the Pied Flycatcher {Ficedula hypoleuca), Centre,whogaveustheopportunitytoworkin Cat
nested in 50.2% boxes (n=215) in the first year of Tien National Park. Alsoweareverygrateful to our
using nest-boxes (2005; Palko, unpublished data).
TienWenastuiponpaolseptahrakttishecwohveorleedfobryestadtjeroriintionrgyohfoCmaet Pclroeolaflg.euaeLgsueehosen,lipedesdpPe.wciiKatolhrlzyeodtuiont.iDorn.AloPsfaovEenmlgalVni.yshKvtvaherartnsakilsonnotoovfcatonhlde-
rangesofWhite-rumpedShamamales.Thisassump-
draftAnastasyaVabiscshevich,SylviaHorsburgh,and
tionisbasedonvisualobservationsofmarkedbirds, John H. Rappole.
capture data, observation ofthe high density7ofthis
species in forest habitats, frequency of territorial REFERENCES
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191