REPRODUCTIVE PHENOLOGY AND AGE AND SEX SIZE DIMORPHISM IN THE COLOMBIAN
ENDEMIC ANTIOQUIA BRUSHFINCH (ATLAPETES BLANCAE)
Abstract
Describing the natural history of endemic and endangered species is
useful for developing effective conservation plans. Two important pieces
of natural history are the timing of reproduction and morphometrics. In
this study, we estimate the reproductive season of Antioquia Brushfinch
(Atlapetes blancae) based on a large database of observations and
captures. We also provide the most extensive morphometric database of
males, females, and juvenile individuals for this species. Taking
advantage of ecological modeling techniques, we estimated that the
reproductive season of A. blancae most likely spans from February
through August with peak reproductive activity during May. The
reproductive activity is highly correlated to day length (r=0.68 95% CI
= 0.2 – 0.9; t=2.9, df=10, p = 0.01) and precipitation during the first
rainy season of the year (r= 0.88 95% CI = 0.3 – 1; t=3.9, df=4,
p=0.02). Furthermore, it is also highly correlated with the reproductive
activity of many other species in the genus Atlapetes (r=0.81 95% CI =
0.4 – 0.9; t=4.4, df=10, p = 0.001). We also found that juveniles are
smaller than adults and females are smaller than males providing
evidence for both, age and sex size dimorphism. This study is the first
attempt to provide important missing information about A. blancae that
could help with understanding population viability. With this study, we
now can focus conservation actions on periods of reproduction which are
important bottlenecks of bird populations.