DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4b8gththx
title: Supplementing a grain diet with insects instead of fruits sustains the body condition of an omnivorous bird

description: Omnivores utilize dietary sources that differ in nutrients, hence dietary
 limitations due to environmental change or habitat alteration could cause
 nutrient limitations, and thus deterioration of body condition if omnivory
 is obligate. We investigated how the body condition of the omnivorous
 Village Weaver Ploceus cucullatus, which forages predominantly on grains,
 responds to the supplementation of its grain diet with insects instead of
 fruits. Forty wild‐caught weavers held in aviaries were fed a combination
 of grains and fruits, or grains and insects ad libitum for 8 weeks. We
 determined diet preference by recording the number of birds on each diet
 option per minute for 1 h and the amount of food left over after 3 hours
 of foraging. Fortnightly, we assessed indices of body condition including
 body mass, pectoral muscle, and fat scores, packed cell volume (PCV), and
 hemoglobin concentration (HBC). We modeled the number of foragers, food
 left over, and body condition indices as functions of diet while
 accounting for time (weeks) and sex effects. Grains were the preferred
 diet, but males ate more fruits and insects than females. Weavers fed on
 grains and fruits lost body and pectoral muscle mass and accumulated less
 fat than those fed on grains and insects. This effect was sex‐dependent:
 females supplemented with fruits lost more pectoral muscle mass than males
 of the same group and males but not females, supplemented with insects
 accumulated more fat reserve than those supplemented with fruits. PCV and
 HBC did not differ between diets but increased over the 8 weeks. Village
 Weavers are likely obligate rather than facultative omnivores, with
 insects being a more nutritive supplement than fruits. Nutrient
 limitations arising from environmental change or habitat alteration could
 impair body condition and affect physiological function to environmental
 seasonality in obligate omnivores like the weavers.
description: This dataset contains observations and measurements made via
 experimental feeding of the Village Weaver (<em>Ploceus
 cucullatus)</em> with grains + fruits and grains + insects in an
 outdoor aviary (with 4 rooms) in the A. P. Leventis Ornithological
 Research Institute, Jos, Nigeria. The measurements and observation are a
 product of experimental investigation of diet preference of the Village
 Weavers (determined via the amount of food left after feeding by the birds
 (Giving-up density, GUD) and the number of birds foraging on each diet
 types per given time), and how deprivation of supplementary dietary items
 (fruits and insects) affect the body condition (body mass, pectoral muscle
 score, fat score, packed cell volume, and haemoglobin concentration) of
 Village Weavers. The data has been processed using Microsoft excel and
 analysed in R statistical software.
description: # Supplementing a grain diet with insects instead of fruits sustains the
 body condition of an omnivorous bird ## Description of the data, file
 structure, and access information
 Data_Effect_of_diet_supplementation_on_body_condition_ECE-2022-08-01167.R2.xlsx The Microsoft Excel dataset file contains three (3) sheets. Sheet one (1) contains the aviary body condition measurement data, sheet two (2) contains the observation of birds foraging on diet types per given time, and sheet three (3) contains the giving up density measurement data. ### Sheet one (1): Aviary\_Body\_Condition\_Data * Diets: Diet experimental treatment/group; grains + fruit and grains + insects * Species: VILWE: Village Weaver *Ploceus cucullatus* * Ring: Unique metal ring identity of individual birds with colour rings in brackets where W = white, R = red, B = blue, and Y = yellow * Survival at week 8: *Birds that survived throughout the 8 weeks of the experiment * Aviaries: 4 aviaries- 2 with grains+fruit fed weavers and 2 with grains+insects fed weavers * Sex: the sex of the bird from morphological identification * Age: Age of the bird from morphology * Wing: Wing length of bird (cm) * Body mass: Body mass of bird (g) * Pecscore: Pectoral muscle score on a scale of 1-3 * Fatscore: Fat score on a scale of 0-9 * PCV: Packed cell volume (%) * HBC: Haemoglobin concentration (g/dl) * Moult: Molt status of flight feathers of bird * Weeks: 0 = before the experiment, and experimental weeks and measurement (2, 4, 6, 8) * Trappinglocation: Location in the A. P. Leventis Ornithological Institute where birds were trapped ### Sheet two (2) Preference\_Observation\_Data * Diet: the different diet types in each experimental tray * Aviary: Aviary used for the experiment; 4 aviaries; 2 with grains and fruits and 2 with grains and insects * Numberofbirds: number of birds foraging on each diet type * Sex: sex of foraging individual bird * Minuteofobservation: observation was made for a 1-minute interval * Hourofobservation: the hour of observation * Dayofobservation: the day of observation * Session: the session of observation * Week: the week of observation ### Sheet three (3) Preference\_GUD\_Data * Diet: the different diet types in each experimental tray * Aviary: Aviary used for the experiment; 4 aviaries; 2 with grains and fruits and 2 with grains and insects * GUD: Giving-up density (the amount of food left after foraging) measurement (g) * Hourofobservation: the hour of measurement * Dayofobservation: the day of measurement * Session: the session of measurement * Week: the week of measurement ## Software Microsoft Word Excel is required to open the data. This data is linked to an article in [https://doi.org/10.22541/au.166029512.26456263/v1](https://doi.org/10.22541/au.166029512.26456263/v1)