SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 
381 
FIG. 1. Nest and egg of the Orange-eared Tanager (C calliparea). ( A) Mossy clump on a horizontal branch where nests 
were located. (13) Cup^nest inside the mossy dump. (C) Inner view of the cup nest showing nest layers and materials. (D) 
White egg with brown spots. 
channel hobo data logger (Onset Computer 
Corporation, http://www.onsetcomp.com, Cape 
Cod, MA, USA), which stored thermal data every 
minute for 15 days. We visited the nest 3 days 
after the sensors were placed to check if they were 
producing accurate data, and again after 12 days 
to download data. We then made daily visits to 
record the exact hatching day. Wc collected daily 
measurements on wing, tarsus, and mass ot the 
nestling. We described nestlings every Other day. 
We took nest measurements to the nearest 0.1 mm 
with a caliper and. when the egg or nestling was 
depredated (or Hedged), collected the nest and 
described the materials of each nest layer. 
Incubation Rhythm Analysis. —Incubation be¬ 
havior was obtained by analyzing the thermal 
changes recorded by the thermal sensor under the 
egg. Cooper and Miles (2005) developed an 
algorithm to detect all intervals when tempera¬ 
tures decrease monotonically. This algorithm 
retrieved three quantities for each interval: 
duration, total decrease in temperature, and initial 
rate of temperature decrease. For example, the 
start of a foraging trip (incubation recess) was 
when the nest temperature decreased monotoni¬ 
cally for at least 1 min and decreased at least 2 C 
at an initial rate of at least 0.5 C/min. 
We calculated the nestling growth rate to 
compare it with other passerine species using a 
logistic equation, W (t) = AH 1 + e 1 l '" 
proposed by Ricklefs (1967). W (t ) is the mass at 
age t. A is the asymptote of the growth curve, K is a 
constant scaling rate of growth. /, is the inflection 
point on the time axis where growth becomes 
asymptotic, and ? is the base natural logarithm. 
RESULTS 
The Five nests of the Orange-eared Tanager 
were between 1,299 and 1,376 m elevation: all 
were found when an adult flushed from the nest 
(except 1 that was found during construction), and 
all contained one egg or one nestling. Each nest 
was built within thick mossy clumps hanging 
from horizontal branches. 
We found three nests during the 2009 field 
season. The first, found on 5 October containing a 
