When parent birds were stressed, they automatically reduced offspring feeding and spent more time searching for food for themselves. (sciencedaily.com)
The report concludes that even a brief appearance of a cat near a bird nest leads to behavioural changes in parent birds that lead to a roughly 1/3 reduction in the amount of food brought to nestlings. (catsandbirds.ca)
Even so, the authors consider this habit of parent birds to be the result of several factors: «We can not rule out that parental behaviour may be altered by the presence of feces near the nest,» they state. (sciencedaily.com)