A field guide for aging passerine nestlings using growth data and predictive modeling  

作　　者：Audrey A.Sanchez Andrew W.Bartlow Allison M.Chan Jeanne M.Fair Aaron A.Skinner Kelly Hutchins Maria A.Musgrave Emily M.Phillips Brent E.Thompson Charles D.Hathcock 

机构地区：[1]Environmental Stewardship,Los Alamos National Laboratory,Los Alamos,NM,USA [2]Biosecurity and Public Health,Los Alamos National Laboratory,Los Alamos,NM,USA [3]Water Program,N3B,Los Alamos,NM,USA

出　　处：《Avian Research》2021年第2期141-149,共9页鸟类学研究（英文版）

摘　　要：Background:Accurate nestling age is valuable for studies on nesting strategies,productivity,and impacts on repro-ductive success.Most aging guides consist of descriptions and photographs that are time consuming to read and subjective to interpret.The Western Bluebird(Sialia mexicana)is a secondary cavity-nesting passerine that nests in coniferous and open deciduous forests.Nest box programs for cavity-nesting species have provided suitable nesting locations and opportunities for data collection on nestling growth and development.Methods:We developed models for predicting the age of Western Bluebird nestlings from morphometric meas-urements using model training and validation.These were developed for mass,tarsus,and two different culmen measurements.Results:Our models were accurate to within less than a day,and each model worked best for a specific age range.The mass and tarsus models can be used to estimate the ages of Western Bluebird nestlings 0-10 days old and were accurate to within 0.5 days for mass and 0.7 days for tarsus.The culmen models can be used to estimate ages of nest-lings 0-15 days old and were also accurate to within less than a day.The daily mean,minimum,and maximum values of each morphometric measurement are provided and can be used in the field for accurate nestling age estimations in real time.Conclusions:The model training and validation procedures used here demonstrate that this method can create aging models that are highly accurate.The methods can be applied to any passerine species provided sufficient nest-ling morphometric data are available.

关 键 词：Cavity-nesting Nest boxes Nestling development Predictive models Western Bluebird 

分 类 号：Q958[生物学—动物学]