Antioxidant defence barrier of great tit Parus major nestlings in response to trace elements

Intensity of nest defence is related to offspring sex ratio in the great tit Parus major.

Nest-defence behaviour of passerines is a form of parental investment. Parents are selected, therefore, to vary the intensity of their nest defence with respect to the value of their offspring. Great tit, Parus major, males were tested for their defence response to both a nest predator and playback of a great tit chick distress call. The results from the two trials were similar; males gave more...

Metal pollution indirectly increases oxidative stress in great tit (Parus major) nestlings.

Metals can cause oxidative stress by increasing the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), when there are insufficient amount of antioxidants to defend against the growing amount of free radicals. We aimed to find out the most reliable biomarkers to detect pollution-related oxidative stress in wild birds by comparing oxidative stress status in great tit (Parus major) nestlings at populatio...

Realized heritability of personalities in the great tit (Parus major).

Behaviour under conditions of mild stress shows consistent patterns in all vertebrates: exploratory behaviour, boldness, aggressiveness covary in the same way. The existence of highly consistent individual variation in these behavioural strategies, also referred to as personalities or coping styles, allows us to measure the behaviour under standardized conditions on birds bred in captivity, lin...

Correlates of Variation in Flight Feather Quality in the Great Tit Parus major

Partitioning of Phenotypic Variance in Life-history Traits in the Great Tit, Parus major