ArticleOecologia2021
Pulses of anthropogenic food availability appear to benefit parents, but compromise nestling growth in urban red-winged starlings.
Article in Oecologia, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of urbanization on health depends on the health metric, life stage and level of urbanization: a global meta-analysis on avian species.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Rapid morphological change in an urban bird due to COVID-19 restrictions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Radio-tracking urban breeding birds: The importance of native vegetation.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Fitness consequences of anthropogenic subsidies for a partially migratory wading bird.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Integument colouration and circulating carotenoids in relation to urbanisation in Eurasian kestrels (Falco tinnunculus).Die Naturwissenschaften · 2023Article
- Interactive effects of rising temperatures and urbanisation on birds across different climate zones: A mechanistic perspective.Global change biology · 2023Review
- The spatial and temporal exploitation of anthropogenic food sources by common ravens (Corvus corax) in the Alps.Movement ecology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The provision of anthropogenic food undoubtedly influences urban bird fitness. However, the nature of the impact is unclear, with both benefits and costs of urban diets documented. Moreover, the influence of short-term fluctuations in food availability, linked to urban weekday/weekend cycles of human presence, is largely unknown. We explored whether breeding red-winged starlings Onychognathus morio in Cape Town, South Africa, altered foraging and provisioning behaviour between days with high human presence (HHP) and days with low human presence (LHP)-i.e. weekdays versus weekends and vacation days. We investigated the relationship between starling diet, adult body mass and nestling development. Breeding adults consumed and provisioned the same quantity of food, but a significantly greater proportion of anthropogenic food on HHP compared to LHP days. Adults apparently benefited from the anthropogenic diet, experiencing significantly greater mass gain on HHP days. However, nestlings experienced a cost, with the number of HHP days during the nestling period associated negatively with nestling size. Adults may, therefore, benefit from the high calorie content of anthropogenic food, while nestlings may be negatively affected by nutrient limitation. The quantity of food available in urban environments may, therefore, benefit adult survival, while its quality imposes a cost to nestling growth.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.