Meeting Abstract
Parents face trade-offs between providing resources for the development and survival of their offspring and acquiring resources for their own survival. Nesting birds must maintain incubation temperatures adequate for embryonic and nestling development while also providing food resources for nestlings and meeting their own energetic needs. Habitat quality including the availability of food may alter parental time and energy budgets. Individual differences in behavior may result in variation in the acquisition and allocation of resources. This study examines how individual behavioral strategies of resource acquisition and allocation in female hooded warblers Setophaga citrina are related to the abundance and availability of food in the environment, to the resources provided to offspring and to offspring growth and survival. Markov model analysis of individual behavior transition matrices yield multivariate estimates of individual behavior variation that can be used together to test hypotheses about how individual variation in behavioral strategies (combinations of behaviors used) and environmental conditions affect variation in offspring condition and survival. This study provides insight into how mothers acquire and allocate time and resources between survival and reproduction under different environmental conditions and the effect of these trade-offs on offspring growth and survival.
