Discussion of the effects of Perceived Predation affecting Songbird Offsprings. An assessment was done to observe the effects of perceived predation risk in a free-living population of song sparrows. The sparrows were found on several of the small Gulf Islands (British Columbia, Canada). The focus was only on perceived predation consequently direct predation was eliminated. The method to eliminate the direct killing by a predator was by electrifying nests and barricading with seine nets. In order to ensure that direct predation was strictly prevented, video surveillance system was incorporated in the experiment to watch over the nests. To trigger the songbirds of predation risk, the researchers prepared playlists of sounds of predator
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Observation was done in order to see the effect of perceived predation risk on parental behavior among mothers encountering predator or non-predator playbacks. Mothers exposed to predator-playback built their nests in dense, thornier vegetation, spent shorter times on and longer times off the nest during incubation. The nest was constructed in dense and thorny area so that predators are prevented from invading the nests. Predator-playback parents made fewer feeding visits per hour during brood-rearing season (Zannette et al. 2011). Factors like perceived predation risk and intimidation are incorporated during nest site selection (Zannette et al. 2011). ‘Intimidation’ due to hearing the sound of predators caused the parent to lay fewer eggs, a large part of it did not hatch because incubation was disturbed due to fear of predators, and a good percentage of the fledglings expired due to starvation because ‘intimidation’ negatively impact the foraging done by parents as they brought less food to the offsprings (Clinchy et al. 2012). As well as lower birth rate, mothers that encountered regular experimental predation suffered from ‘physiological dysregulation ' which impacts mortality. High parental investment in the initial clutch reduces the energy of the parent to raise further clutches in later successions (Slagsvold
Observation was done in order to see the effect of perceived predation risk on parental behavior among mothers encountering predator or non-predator playbacks. Mothers exposed to predator-playback built their nests in dense, thornier vegetation, spent shorter times on and longer times off the nest during incubation. The nest was constructed in dense and thorny area so that predators are prevented from invading the nests. Predator-playback parents made fewer feeding visits per hour during brood-rearing season (Zannette et al. 2011). Factors like perceived predation risk and intimidation are incorporated during nest site selection (Zannette et al. 2011). ‘Intimidation’ due to hearing the sound of predators caused the parent to lay fewer eggs, a large part of it did not hatch because incubation was disturbed due to fear of predators, and a good percentage of the fledglings expired due to starvation because ‘intimidation’ negatively impact the foraging done by parents as they brought less food to the offsprings (Clinchy et al. 2012). As well as lower birth rate, mothers that encountered regular experimental predation suffered from ‘physiological dysregulation ' which impacts mortality. High parental investment in the initial clutch reduces the energy of the parent to raise further clutches in later successions (Slagsvold