Female begging calls reflect nutritional need of nestlings in the hen harrier Circus cyaneus

Table 1 Summary of data from 42 hen harrier nests, watched during years 1994–1999

Year	Nest number	Chick ages (weeks)	Number of chicks	Fed / Unfed	Time watched (hrs)	Number of Bouts	Number of calls
1994	1	2–6	5–4	U	84.03	73	882
1994	2	1–6	4–3	U	105.97	45	817
1994	3	1–3	5–2	U	31.61	13	98
1994	4	1–6	4–2	U	73.46	52	1592
1994	5	2–6	6–4	U	107.32	63	2479
1994	6	2–6	3	U	76.38	23	501
1994	7	1–4	3	U	66.87	54	1682
1995	8	1–6	5–4	U	99.64	107	1812
1995	9	1–6	4–3	U	105.51	33	708
1995	10	1–6	4	U	91.8	117	2721
1995	11	2–5	4	U	115.82	86	2692
1995	12	1–5	3	U	86.14	114	2260
1995	13	1–5	5–3	U	114.94	114	2647
1996	14	1–6	4–2	U	152.22	99	2244
1996	15	1–5	4–3	U	142.22	112	1396
1996	16	1–5	6–4	U	114.14	88	3645
1996	17	1–5	4–3	U	101.16	117	3089
1996	18	1–6	3–2	U	132.81	108	4039
1998	19	1–6	5–4	U	87.09	79	2837
1998	20	2–5	3	U	82.95	98	3602
1998	21	1–5	5–2	U	77.67	56	1470
1998	22	1–5	5–4	U	78.34	85	2603
1998	23	3–6	4–2	U	68.58	45	1005
1998	24	2–6	5–3	U	77.5	78	1918
1998	25	1–5	4–3	F	70.35	83	1206
1998	26	2–5	4–3	F	57.43	41	396
1998	27	2–5	3–2	F	58.5	35	1503
1998	28	1–5	5	F	53.91	61	846
1998	29	2–5	2	F	59.5	66	1047
1998	30	2–5	3	F	70.48	29	520
1998	31	1–5	5	F	95.33	115	1780
1998	32	1–5	4	F	63.99	56	704
1998	33	2–5	6–4	F	86.77	61	1270
1999	34	1–5	2	U	78.41	66	829
1999	35	1–5	4–2	U	113.66	66	1034
1999	36	1–5	2	U	77.84	67	1871
1999	37	2–5	3	U	101.58	78	3027
1999	38	1–5	5–4	F	95.5	27	187
1999	39	1–5	2	F	112.84	56	735
1999	40	1–5	4–3	F	125.25	78	602
1999	41	1–5	4–2	F	112.09	61	1174
1999	42	2–5	3	F	101.58	46	496

The table shows the range of chick ages at each nest during watches, the number of chicks, showing decline due to chick mortality, the total number of hours each nest was watched for, the number of bouts of begging and the total number of begging calls recorded

ISSN: 2730-7182