La Tour du Valat

Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

Titre :	Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) defends nest against Apodemus mouse
Auteurs :	Thomas Schaefer, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	Vogelwarte (41(3) September, 2002)
Article en page(s) :	211-213
Langues:	Allemand
Résumé :	Mice are often assumed to prey on bird nests. However, there are only few actual observations of mice taking eggs or young birds from nests, or they were obtained with artificial nests. Bures (1997) showed in videotaped experiments that unguarded nests of the meadow-pipit fell prey to voles in a high population density of the rodent. My videotaped observation of a chiffchaff nest showed the opposite: When an Apodemus mouse approached the nest at night, the brooding adult bird appeared in the nest entrance with spread-out wings and open bill, causing the mouse to flee. The five young birds, at the time six days old, left the nest at the age of 12 days. The observation shows that in nature small songbirds can keep rodents away from the nest. This might of course be more difficult if there are more disturbances, and there might be more instances of murine predation if the adult birds are frequently away from the nest. At the same time it shows that experiments with artificial nests must be interpreted with caution because they do not include the presence of adult birds.

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