DOI: 10.5061/dryad.8nm8r6s
title: Data from: Spatial, temporal and individual-based differences in nest-site visits and subsequent reproductive success in wild great tits

description: The behaviour of individual birds before and during the breeding period
 may be an important factor determining reproductive success. One commonly
 observed behaviour during the breeding period in many species is the
 visitation of multiple potential breeding sites. Much research has
 attempted to determine the function and consequences of this behaviour,
 but traditionally studies have been limited to not examining
 individual-level behaviour, or only considering a small number of
 individuals. We used automated recording of RFID-tagged birds visiting
 nestboxes to study a population of 80 great tits (Parus major) making
 &gt;3500 daily visits across 74 breeding sites, to quantify the
 frequency, spatial patterning, and temporal occurrence of this behaviour
 from the pre-breeding period onwards. We argue that (i) the tight spatial
 clustering of visits, (ii) juveniles visiting more sites than adults, and
 (iii) males (but not females) continuing to visit other sites even as egg
 laying at their own nest occurs, indicate that territoriality and
 extra-pair mating may underpin visitation behaviour. Further, we find that
 spatial clustering of female visits relates to increased clutch size and
 fledging success, while frequently visiting a preferred nesting site
 increases the likelihood of obtaining a breeding site but reduces
 subsequent reproductive output for both sexes. Our study offers new
 insight into the mechanisms potentially driving breeding site visitation
 behaviour, and demonstrates its relationship to individual fitness. We
 suggest that although visitation behaviour may be related to different
 components of fitness, future work should use experiments to fully assess
 the causal factors and effects of visitation behaviour.
description: Dryad
 DataDESCRIPTIONS OF RDATA
 OBJECTS: "'obs.dryad' object description: Each row is
 unique and indicates each visit by each individual to a nestbox on each
 day. Columns are: 'PIT'= the PIT tag (or RFID tag)
 identification code for that bird, 'Date'= Year-Month-Day d,
 'Unit'=the unique identifier code for the nestbox RFID logger,
 'Sex'= M for male or F for female, 'Age'= 5 for
 juvenile or 6 for adult (as per BTO scoring), 'Species'= the
 species of the bird (all great tits - Parus major) , 'Breeding'=
 whether a bird was recorded breeding that year (B) or not recorded
 breeding (NB), 'LD'= the lay date of the first egg of this bird
 (days since April 1st), 'Day'= the day of this visit by this
 individual to this nestbox (days since Feb 1st), 'diff'= the
 number of days difference between the day of this visit by this bird to
 this box and the day it laid its first egg (for non-breeders, the average
 lay date is used), 'box'= the name of the box the bird visited,
 'brebox'= the name of the box the bird bred in,
 'breunit'= the unit code of the box the bird bred it. Please
 email joshua.firth@zoo.ox.ac.uk with any questions" and
 "'bre.dryad' object description: Each row is unique and
 indicates a breeding record for each bird that year. Columns are:
 'PIT'= the PIT tag (or RFID tag) identification code for that
 bird, 'SEX'= M for male or F for female, 'AGE2012'= 5
 for juvenile or 6 for adult (as per BTO scoring) that year,
 'BOX2012'= the name of the box the bird bred in that year,
 'LD'= the lay date of the first egg of this bird (days since
 April 1st), 'NF'= the number of chicks fledged, 'CS'=
 the clutch size, 'WING'= bird wing length, 'WT'= bird
 weight, 'TARSUS'= bird tarsus length. Please email
 joshua.firth@zoo.ox.ac.uk with any questions"