Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species
To what degree is niche partitioning driven by underlying patterns in resources such as food, rather than by competition itself? Do discrete niches exist? We address these questions in the context of Cooper's and sharp‐shinned hawks, two broadly sympatric, North American, bird‐eating raptors in...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Avian Biology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02934 |
| _version_ | 1828085175542611968 |
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| author | Eliot T. Miller Oisin Mac Aodha Emma I. Greig David N. Bonter Wesley M. Hochachka |
| author_facet | Eliot T. Miller Oisin Mac Aodha Emma I. Greig David N. Bonter Wesley M. Hochachka |
| author_sort | Eliot T. Miller |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | To what degree is niche partitioning driven by underlying patterns in resources such as food, rather than by competition itself? Do discrete niches exist? We address these questions in the context of Cooper's and sharp‐shinned hawks, two broadly sympatric, North American, bird‐eating raptors in the genus Accipiter. We find that the resource base, as quantified by body masses of birds at bird feeders, is approximately lognormal (smallest birds are most abundant), with lesser modes (peaks) in abundance at larger body mass. The predators appear to exploit peaks in the resource base, with sharp‐shinned hawks focusing on small prey items (median of 26.5 g), and Cooper's hawks taking prey from the two most abundant peaks (both the small body mass peak and a lesser peak at medium body mass ~90 g). We tested the ability of citizen scientists to distinguish these notoriously similar species, and we determined the influence of potential false positive detections on our conclusions. We find that citizen scientists struggle to distinguish these predators from one another, and 18% of Cooper's hawks were identified as sharp‐shinned hawks, while 27% of sharp‐shinned hawks were identified as Cooper's hawks. Yet, simulations show that this uncertainty did not jeopardize our qualitative conclusions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T04:36:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-35f61bfce0d94ccaba596fd7962cdb11 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0908-8857 1600-048X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T04:36:38Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Avian Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-35f61bfce0d94ccaba596fd7962cdb112022-12-28T10:25:20ZengWileyJournal of Avian Biology0908-88571600-048X2022-11-01202211-12n/an/a10.1111/jav.02934Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey speciesEliot T. Miller0Oisin Mac Aodha1Emma I. Greig2David N. Bonter3Wesley M. Hochachka4Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell Univ. Ithaca NY USASchool of Informatics, Univ. of Edinburgh Edinburgh ScotlandCornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell Univ. Ithaca NY USACornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell Univ. Ithaca NY USACornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell Univ. Ithaca NY USATo what degree is niche partitioning driven by underlying patterns in resources such as food, rather than by competition itself? Do discrete niches exist? We address these questions in the context of Cooper's and sharp‐shinned hawks, two broadly sympatric, North American, bird‐eating raptors in the genus Accipiter. We find that the resource base, as quantified by body masses of birds at bird feeders, is approximately lognormal (smallest birds are most abundant), with lesser modes (peaks) in abundance at larger body mass. The predators appear to exploit peaks in the resource base, with sharp‐shinned hawks focusing on small prey items (median of 26.5 g), and Cooper's hawks taking prey from the two most abundant peaks (both the small body mass peak and a lesser peak at medium body mass ~90 g). We tested the ability of citizen scientists to distinguish these notoriously similar species, and we determined the influence of potential false positive detections on our conclusions. We find that citizen scientists struggle to distinguish these predators from one another, and 18% of Cooper's hawks were identified as sharp‐shinned hawks, while 27% of sharp‐shinned hawks were identified as Cooper's hawks. Yet, simulations show that this uncertainty did not jeopardize our qualitative conclusions.https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02934Accipiteradaptive landscapecitizen sciencefalse positivemacroevolutionniche partitioning |
| spellingShingle | Eliot T. Miller Oisin Mac Aodha Emma I. Greig David N. Bonter Wesley M. Hochachka Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species Journal of Avian Biology Accipiter adaptive landscape citizen science false positive macroevolution niche partitioning |
| title | Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species |
| title_full | Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species |
| title_fullStr | Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species |
| title_full_unstemmed | Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species |
| title_short | Congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species |
| title_sort | congeneric predators fill discrete niches created by the relative abundances of their prey species |
| topic | Accipiter adaptive landscape citizen science false positive macroevolution niche partitioning |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02934 |
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