FOOD FEEDING RATES AND BODY TEMPERATURE IN NESTLING HOUSE SPARROW PASSER DOMESTICUS AT OXFORD

Diet, feeding frequency and body temperatures were studied in nestling House Sparrows at Oxford. In the diet, studied principally from crop contents, dipterous flies, caterpillars and aphids were most prominent in early May, early June and July respectively, while bread and dry grain, apparently less suitable foods, were more evenly distributed throughout the breeding season but apparently acquired an importance when insect foods were scarce. Adult House Sparrows increased the frequency of their feeding visits to the nestlings proportionately with brood‐size for broods of 1–3, but for larger broods the feeding frequency did not increase. This abruptly achieved upper limit presumably gave rise to inadequate feeding of the larger broods (including the principal brood‐size). The male's share of the visits decreased markedly in the later stages of the nestling period, corresponding to his initiation of a display directed at the female. His displaying at this stage probably allows the female to begin a further clutch soon after the previous nesting has finished. Nestlings were unable to maintain a steady body temperature above the ambient air temperature outside the nest before nestling day 10½. Maintenance of a steady body temperature depends on the nestling's feather covering, which is effectively complete at 9½ days. Before this, temperature control is possible within a limited range of ambient temperatures. Copyright © 1969, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved