Comments on Hole-Nesting in Birds

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Abstract
Data on the associations of hole-nesting (1) with being resident and (2) with foraging in ways that expose the bird to observation by nest-predators are re-analysed. The first association is present in non-exposed foragers but not in exposed foragers. The second is present in migrants but not residents, perhaps because competition for nest-holes is less strong among the latter. However, residents outweigh migrants as strongly among those species that build their own sheltered nests as in those that use pre-existing holes, although there should be less competition for sites in the former. There are severe limitations to such correlations: they are more useful in framing hypotheses than in testing them. The best tests depend on using the hypotheses to make independent predictions. Various predictions can be made about predation-rates, based on the hypothesis that predators are more likely to follow exposed foragers back to their nests than non-exposed foragers. Some of them are confirmed, but not all.

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