Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Moreno E. & Carrascal L.M. (1995) Hoarding Nuthatches spend more time hiding a husked seed than an unhusked seed. ARDEA 83 (2): 391-395
We examine how time investment in handling food items of similar energy content affects hoarding behaviour of wild Nuthatches Sitta europaea during autumn-winter in Central Spain. We test the possibility that Nuthatches invest more time caching husked than unhusked seeds as they will obtain a benefit from the lower expenditure of energy and time during future consumption of prepared caches. Sunflower seeds were husked in most of the observed caches (71.5%). In the study population individuals devoted over 27% of their hoarding time to handling the seed (removing the sunflower shell), which means an important proportion of the time budget of hoarding Nuthatches. Hiding time, and time and distance flying from feeders to cache sites were longer when Nuthatches hoarded husked than unhusked seeds. These results are consistent with the prediction that more valuable items will be spaced more widely together with more securely.


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