Lee el al. • PROVISIONING RATES OF VARIED TITS 
287 
nestlings as well as for females (Gowaty 1983). 
Successful breeding at high elevations depends on 
male care (Lyon et al. 1987. Badyaev 1993). 
Gntrtdel (1987) reported similar strategies, in 
which the provisioning rate of males increased 
when brood size was larger, but there was no 
change in the provisioning rate of females if brood 
size was smaller. Royama (1966) showed the 
relative provisioning rate of females decreased if 
brood size was smaller. Statists et al. (2005) 
reported the provisioning rate and the flight 
distance for foraging increased under unfavorable 
conditions. These results suggest provisioning 
rates depend on foraging conditions and energy 
demands or nestlings. 
Altitude appears to be an environment factor that 
influences several variables such as prey quality 
and quantity, breeding timing, temperature, etc., but 
wc do not know which variables change with 
altitude to directly affect changes in provisioning 
rates. Further research is needed to identify the 
causes of change in provisioning activities consid¬ 
ering energy benefits and cost to parents. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
We are grateful to Jinwon Lee. Chungyong Choi, 
Woongsoon Jang, anti Am Scol for valuable advice and 
discussion, and the reviewers and editor for constructive 
critiques of the manuscript, Financial support for this study 
was provided by Long-Term Ecological Research. Ministry 
of Environment. Republic of Korea. 
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