NESTLING PERIOD

Hatching Sequence

As indicated earlier, hatching normally occurs fourteen days after the second egg is laid. Hatching of the young was staggered at three nests under observation. In nest 2-b (1959) the first young hatched on June 8, 1959, the second on June 10. In 3-b (1959) one young hatched each day from the 12th through the 14th of June. In 5-a (1959) two young hatched on June 15, the third on June 16, and the fourth on June 17. Size of the young differed notably for about three days as a result of staggered hatching, but after that day the younger birds tended to catch up in size with their older brood-mates. The fourth young in nest 5-a (1959) grew steadily weaker and was missing from the nest on June 23, 1959. Staggered hatching is usually thought to be related to the availability of food that will insure survival of at least some of the nestlings when a shortage of food exists. It is doubtful that staggered hatching has adaptive significance in the Bell Vireo, since there seems to be no shortage of food for the young. In small passerines such as the Bell Vireo the principal problem is to insure fledging as quickly as possible because of the danger from predators.

Development of the Nestlings

Young are pinkish at hatching and devoid of visible natal down. Du Bois (in Wetherbee, 1957:380), inspected day-old nestlings by means of a magnifying glass and was unable to detect any down. Nolan (1960:236) also indicates that the young are naked at birth and that the "body color is between flesh and rufous except where folds of the straw yellow skin obscure the underlying colors." The Hutton Vireo (Vireo huttoni) is essentially naked at birth, save for sparse hairlike down on the head and back (Wetherbee, 1953:380). The Red-eyed Vireo, according to Lawrence (1953:67) is naked at birth save for a sparse covering of greyish natal down, on the head, shoulders, and back.

In the Bell Vireo the pterylae darken slightly on the second day and the color becomes more intense daily until the quills of the dorsal tracts, the wings, and the tail break from their sheaths on the sixth day. In Red-eyed Vireos the pterylae darken by the end of the first day and the quills break through the skin on the fifth day, erupting from the sheaths by the seventh day (Lawrence, 1953:67).

From the first day the young are able to squeak. Poking a young bird was sufficient to elicit this sound, phonetically a nasal peek. The only other vocalization noted throughout the nestling period was an abbreviated chee.

For the first three days tapping the nest or even movement of it caused by wind would elicit begging. By the fifth day at nest 2-a (1959) only vigorous agitation of the branch to which the nest was attached evoked any response. At this nest on June 16, 1959, one young begged while the other cowered. Cowering is correlated with opening of the eyes, as the young bird that begged had its eyes only partly open. Both young cowered on June 19, 1959. Table 9 summarizes the maturation of the nestling Bell Vireos.

Table 9. Maturation of Nestling Bell Vireos. The First Day That an Activity Was Observed Is Shown.

Day of nestling life

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Eyes open x

Feathers erupt x

Sound: Squeak x

Sound: Chee x

Begging x

Cowering x

Head scratching and Preening x

Hopping to rim of nest x

Fledging x[G]

Parental Behavior

No eggshells were found in nests on the days of hatching. Presumably they had been removed by the parents. Nolan (1960:234) indicates immediate disposition of the eggshell after hatching. Lawrence (1953:62) suggests that conspicuous removal of eggshells by the female Red-eyed Vireo informs the male that the young have hatched.

Both sexes brood and the exchange of partners resembles that described for the incubation period. Decrease in brooding in the daytime begins about the sixth day of nestling life. Nolan (1960:235) reports a sharp decrease in brooding when the oldest nestlings are seven days old. Brooding decreases notably on the sixth day of nestling life in the Red-eyed Vireo (Lawrence, 1953:62). Nice (1929:17), Hensley (1950:244), and Nolan (1960:235) report that the female Bell Vireo assumes a slightly greater role in brooding than the male.

Apparent sun-shading was noted at nest 3-b (1959) at 2:00 p.m. on June 17, 1959, on the fifth day of the nestling period. The nest contained three young. An adult flew to the nest; while standing on its rim the bird dipped its head into the nest six times, afterward appeared to be eating a fecal sac, than shifted position to the unattached portion of the rim, gaped three times, thereupon spread its wings, and sat motionless 35 minutes. In this attitude it formed an effective shield sheltering the young from direct sunlight penetrating the thin foliage of the honey locust in which the nest was situated. The temperature at this time was 95° F., but the sky was partly cloudy. By 2:30 p.m. the sky had become overcast and the sun passed behind a cloud. Although sunlight no longer fell directly upon the nest, the bird remained in the shielding posture for another five minutes before flying from its perch. Sun-shading was not observed at either of the other nests containing young; dense overhead vegetation protected those nests. Sun-shading has been noted in other species where the nest was poorly protected from the sun. Lawrence (1953:62) observed this behavior at two Red-eyed Vireo nests in conifers. The "sun-shield" posture of the Bell Vireo does not correspond to any of the sunning postures described by Hauser (1957).

Feeding of the Nestlings

Both sexes fed the young, and presumably began shortly after the first nestling hatched. My data indicate that the female does more feeding than the male (Table 10); in about eight hours of observation a total of 67 morsels were brought, 43 by the female and 24 by the male, for an average of once every 7.6 minutes. Nice (1929:17), however, observed a male to bring food 53 times as compared to 21 visits by the female. In five and one-half hours of watching, meals were brought once every 4.9 minutes. Du Bois (in Bent, 1950:257) recorded seven trips in an hour and forty minutes, or one every fourteen minutes.

At three nests containing young the adults were sometimes silent and sometimes vocal on their approach. The female often emitted a subdued chee which, coupled with the vibration of the nest caused by her arrival, elicited begging behavior from the young. None of the males was heard to utter such a call, but I have the impression that they often did call although I failed to hear the sounds. The males did, on occasion, sing several songs as they approached, even with food held in their beaks. Such singing elicited begging from the nestlings. Once the eyes of the young were open they often began begging when a silent adult was within two or three feet of the nest; begging behavior probably is elicited by tactile, auditory or visual stimuli in that order, or, as the nestling period proceeds, by any combination of these stimuli.

Table 10. Feeding of the Nestlings.

Day of nestling period Length of observation Adult involved

Male Female

1 30 min. 3 5

2 60 min. 1 4

3 60 min. 2 5

4 30 min. 1 4

7 60 min. 4 7

2 60 min. 3 3

6 60 min. 3 6

7 30 min. 3 3

9 60 min. 4 6

Totals 510 min. 24 43

Not all trips made by parents resulted in successful feeding of young; some visits seemed to be purely for inspecting the young. On other occasions the adults experienced difficulty in transferring food to the young, and, thus thwarted, would themselves eat the food. Nice (1929:17) estimated that from five to twelve of a total of seventy-five meals were eaten by adults.

Nest Sanitation

Both parents regularly removed fecal sacs from the nest, eating them for the first five days and thereafter carrying them off and presumably dropping them. It is doubtful that fecal sacs were actively removed in the last two days of nestling life as the bottoms of nests from which young flew away were invariably covered with excrement.

On several occasions a parent brought food to the nest and then remained perched on the rim alternately peering into the nest and then preening. Once bill swiping was observed and another time an adult male sang once. The adult remained at the nest from twenty seconds to a full minute.

Fledging

Eight young were fledged from the four nests in 1959. The nestling period lasted from nine to twelve days. Human interference may have been largely responsible for the fledging of the young at nine days. Pitelka and Koestner (1942:100) found nestling life to last eleven days. Nolan (1960:235) reports nestling periods varying from 10.5 to 12 days. The young Red-eyed Vireo is ready to leave the nest at ten days but often remains an additional day before departing (Lawrence, 1953:68).

The oldest nestling at nest 2-a (1959) hopped out on June 17, 1959, when I disturbed the parents. On this date the juvenal plumage was only partly developed and the young bird was incapable of flight. By the tenth day of nestling life the young in all the nests were observed to hop to the rim, flutter their wings, hop back into the nest and also to preen and scratch their heads. The young at fledging are usually completely feathered, but have notably short tails and relatively short, stubby wings. According to Ridgeway (1904:205) the juvenal plumage is much like that of the adult.

Nest Parasites

Pitelka and Koestner (1942:103) found that incubating adults and later the young suffered infestation of the northern fowl mite, Ornithonyseus sylviarum. Nolan (1960:241) reports a heavy infestation of this mite at four nests. Unidentified mites were noted at four nests in my study area in 1959. Incubating adults were observed to peck at their breasts and scapulars from the eleventh through the fourteenth day of incubation. Serious infestations were not noted at the nests until the ninth day of nestling life. At this time the young were observed to scratch their heads and peck at their breasts, scapulars, and the base of their tails. On the day of fledging the nests were a seething mass of crawling mites; the mites also extended well up the branches to which the nests were attached. Nest 1-a (1959), which was discovered on June 18, 1959, presumably on the day after fledging, was densely covered with mites. Some mites were still crawling on this nest on June 20, 1959.