DOI: 10.5061/dryad.9w0vt4bmt
title: Food and social cues modulate reproductive development but not migratory behavior in a nomadic songbird, the Pine Siskin (Pinus spinus)

description: Many animals rely on photoperiodic and non-photoperiodic environmental
 cues to gather information and appropriately time life history stages
 across the annual cycle, such as reproduction, molt, and migration. Here,
 we experimentally demonstrate that the reproductive physiology, but not
 migratory behavior, of captive Pine Siskins responds to both food and
 social cues during the spring migratory-breeding period. Pine Siskins are
 a nomadic finch with a highly flexible breeding schedule and, in the
 spring, free-living Pine Siskins can wander large geographic areas and
 opportunistically breed. To understand the importance of non-photoperiodic
 cues to the migratory-breeding transition, we maintained individually
 housed birds on either a standard or enriched diet in the presence of
 group-housed heterospecifics or conspecifics experiencing either the
 standard or enriched diet type. We measured body condition and
 reproductive development of all Pine Siskins and, among individually
 housed Pine Siskins, quantified nocturnal migratory restlessness. In
 group-housed birds, the enriched diet caused increases in body condition
 and, among females, promoted reproductive development. Among individually
 housed birds, female reproductive development differed between treatment
 groups whereas male reproductive development did not. Specifically,
 individually housed females showed greater reproductive development when
 presented with conspecifics compared to heterospecifics. The highest rate
 of female reproductive development, however, was observed amongst
 individually housed females provided the enriched diet and maintained with
 group-housed conspecifics on an enriched diet. Changes in nocturnal
 migratory restlessness did not vary by treatment group or sex. By
 manipulating both the physical and social environment, this study
 demonstrates how multiple environmental cues can affect the timing of
 transitions between life history stages with differential responses
 between sexes and between migratory and reproductive systems.
description: The data were collected from captive pine siskins using
 morphological measurements and infrared sensors. Data from infrared
 sensors has been filtered so only specific times of day are included in
 summed activity values.
description: # Pine siskin data analysis --- This dataset includes activity, body
 condition, and reproductive condition measurements for male and female
 pine siskins housed either alone or in groups. These data were collected
 from an experiment testing how different combinations of environmental
 cues influence changes in behavior and physiology during the
 migratory-spring breeding transition. ## Description of the Data and file
 structure Read me file for “Modulation of Reproductive Physiology and
 Migratory Behavior in a Nomadic Songbird during Spring: Influence of Food
 and Social Cues” **File name: food.consumption.data.csv** Columns: Date:
 The day of the year data were collected in “mm/dd/yy” format Room:
 Categorical variable denoting which room the birds were housed in birds:
 categorical variable denoting the bird identification. Group-housed bird
 have a cage ID rather than band number. housing: indicates if the bird was
 housed alone or in groups cons: binary variable denoting if food item was
 consumed. 0 indicates the food was not consumed and 1 indicates the food
 was consumed. Blanks denote instances in which the food item was not
 provided as either only the greens or worm were provided for that date.
 type: the type of food item being consumed. Worm indicates it is a meal
 worm and veg indicates was a vegetable   **File name:
 pisi_all_condition_data.csv** Columns: Date: The day of year data were
 collected in “mm/dd/yy” format date.group: date denoting which
 measurements were collected during the same week meas.group: categorical
 variable denoting which week measurements were collected ID: categorical
 variable denoting the bird identification treatment: categorical variable
 denoting treatment group for birds housed individually. Group-housed birds
 have blank values in this column. Levels of treatment include: ED/ED
 (enriched diet/enriched diet), RECR (Red Crossbill neighbors), SD/SD
 (standard diet/standard diet), and SD/ED (standard diet, enriched diet).
 The description to the left of the parentheses describes the diet of the
 individually housed birds and the description to the right described the
 diet of group-housed birds. See Figure 1 and methods of main text for more
 information. Room: categorical variable denoting which room of the 4 rooms
 birds were housed in subj.stim: categorical variable denoting if a bird
 was housed alone (“subj”) or in a group (“stim”) group: categorical
 variable denoting treatment/diet group and housing conditions Sex:
 categorical variable denoting if a bird was male or female cage.sex.ratio:
 categorical variable denoting if the cage sex ratio was 2 males and a
 female (mmf) or 2 females and a male (ffm) or a bird housed alone (focal).
 mass: numerical variable denoting the birds mass in grams Furc: numerical
 variable denoting the furcular fat score. Rows of group-housed individuals
 blank. Ab: numerical variable denoting the abdominal fat score. Rows of
 group-housed individuals blank. Fat: numerical variable denoting the sum
 of the furc and ab fat scores. Rows of group-housed individuals blank.
 Muscle: categorical variable denoting the muscle score for a bird. Rows of
 group-housed individuals blank. Cat.bp: categorical variable denoting the
 brood patch score for females, rows of males left blank. Two females (446,
 448) are missing data. CPL: numerical variable denoting the cloacal
 protuberance length for males. Rows of females left blank. Rows of males
 with large abdominal fat deposits left blank due to measurements not being
 accurate (see main text). Data missing for 1 group-housed male (447).  
 **File name: PISI.2021.Exp.Noc.Activity.Data.csv** Columns: sensor:
 denotes ID of sensor measuring bird activity. ID: categorical variable
 denoting the bird identification Sex: categorical variable denoting if a
 bird was male or female Treatment: categorical variable denoting treatment
 group for birds housed individually. Levels of treatment include: ED/ED
 (enriched diet/enriched diet), RECR (Red Crossbill neighbors), SD/SD
 (standard diet/standard diet), and SD/ED (standard diet, enriched diet).
 The description to the left of the parentheses describes the diet of the
 individually housed birds and the description to the right described the
 diet of group-housed birds. See Figure 1 and methods of main text for more
 information. night.date: date denoting the night summed activity data
 represent, in “mm/dd/yy” format exp.day: day of the experiment relative to
 day 0 value: summed number of movements recorded by infrared sensors
 between 11pm and 3am ## Sharing/access Information These data are not
 publicly available in any other location. Was data derived from another
 source? No