An avian dominance hierarchy at a supplemental water source in the Patagonian steppe

Abstract

Birds often compete and engage in interspecific agonistic interactions for access to resources such as food and breeding territories. Based on the observed outcomes from such interactions (i.e., patterns of displacements) dominance hierarchies can be established. Knowing which species can outcompete others for essential resources allows researchers to make predictions about the broader ecological impacts of interspecific interactions. We constructed an interspecific dominance hierarchy of twelve avian species which visited an artificial water source in an arid region of coastal Patagonia, Argentina. Displacements were categorized into four types, based on the behaviors involved in the interaction, and we tested if they could predict the difference in dominance between the interacting species (the difference between calculated dominance coefficients for the two focal species). Indirect displacements, involving only the arrival of the dominant species to the water source without direct aggression toward the subordinate bird, occurred more frequently between species with a large difference in dominance. The most dominant bird observed was the kelp gull (Larus dominicanus), which, due to an increasing population and expanding range, in part due to food supplementation from fisheries waste, is likely to outcompete terrestrial and marine avian species for other scarce resources.