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A sea turtle clutch. A clutch of eggs is the group of eggs produced by birds, amphibians, or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest. In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators (or removal by humans, for example the California condor breeding program) results in double-clutching. The technique is used to double ...
Avian clutch size should be proportional to breeding season resource productivity per breeding pair of birds. [10] This relationship has been found in a series of studies from Alaska and Costa Rica. [10] According to Ashmole's Hypothesis, the clutch size of resident birds is proportional to the level of competition with migrant birds. [11]
A diagram of a bird egg Eggs of various birds, labelled (Trinity College Zoological Museum, Dublin) Bird eggs are laid by the females and range in quantity from one (as in condors) to up to seventeen (the grey partridge). Clutch size may vary latitudinally within a species.
Lack's principle, proposed by the British ornithologist David Lack in 1954, states that "the clutch size of each species of bird has been adapted by natural selection to correspond with the largest number of young for which the parents can, on average, provide enough food". [1]
With multiple young, predators could eat several and others could still survive to reach maturity, but with only one offspring, its loss could mean a wasted breeding season. The other significant advantage is the chance for the healthiest young animals to be favored from a group.
The absence of nests is especially prevalent in open habitat ground-nesting species where any addition of nest material would make the nest more conspicuous. Many ground nesting birds lay a clutch of eggs that hatch synchronously, with precocial chicks led away from the nests by their parents soon after hatching. [235]
If, by chance, the bird is looking away from you, then Doolittle believes that the red Cardinal has messages for you, but "you may be missing [them] by being too busy or too distracted from your ...
The average clutch size is four to six eggs per nest. Females lay one egg a day and incubation begins when the penultimate (second to last) egg is laid. Incubation lasts 15–16 days and the female is the main incubator, with some help from the male.