584 
THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 124. No. 3. September 2012 
„ TA . BI . 1 : L Product,vity (eggs P lus nesllin § s ) of Monk Parakeet nests removed from electric utility facilities in south 
Florida. Nests were removed from street-side distribution poles in 2003/2004 (Mar-Jul), and those from 2006/2007 (Apr- 
May) were removed from substations. Nests with zero contents are not included. 
Distribution poles (2003/20134) 
i openings 
n 
Mean 
SE 
1 
40 
4.4 
0.2 
2 
30 
5.4 
0.5 
3 
6 
6.8 
1.6 
Substations (2006/20071 
n 
Mean 
SE 
45 
5.3 
0.2 
1 
7.0 
N/A 
1 
6.0 
N/A 
n 
85 
31 
7 
Totals 
Mean SE 
4.9 0.2 
5.5 0.4 
6.3 1.4 
- 107.6 ± 2.5 g). No male parakeet had an 
incubation patch. 
Fledglings first appeared during the second 
week of June. Birds frequently escaped during 
nest-removal operations, and there was no way to 
know whether the escapees were adults or 
fledglings. We narrowed (he uncertainty regarding 
number of fledglings per nest by examining 
records (n = 14) where no escapes occurred and 
where the nest structure had just one opening. 
These data suggest three fledglings/pair was the 
norm (Fig. 3). 
Three of 50 nests at substations had zero 
contents. Forty-five of the remaining 47 nests 
had a single entry hole (Table 1). The contents of 
the single-entry nest structures from substations 
exceeded (P = 0.007; F L84 = 7.67) those from 
distribution poles (Table I ). We collected 190 
nestlings from 35 substation nests. The range in 
nestling body mass within broods was as much as 
96 g and. across all broods, body mass of nestlinas 
ranged from 3.7 to 143.4 g (Fig. 4). The memi 
body mass of nestlings exceeded that of adults in 
eight broods. 
Body Size .—Adult male parakeets were slightly 
but consistently larger than adult females (P < 
0.025) except for tail length [P = 0.996) across 
the study period (Table 2). Mean adult female 
body mass temporarily exceeded that of males 
during the period of egg development in March- 
May, but males were heavier overall (P = 0.008; 
big. 5). Fledgling males were consistently larger 
than fledgling females (P < 0.025) in all 
characters except wing chord (P = 0.063) and 
tail length (P - 0.288; Table 2). 
Replacement of Primaries .—We examined 55 
birds in (he initial stage ot replacing primary 
leathers. Dates of initiation of molt (P6) extended 
from the first week of April to the second week of 
July with 28 (51%) occurring in June. The basic 
sequence ot primary feather replacement started 
with P6, proceeded to P7, and then continued P5- 
P8-P4-P9-P3-PI0-P2-PI. This was the prevalent 
pattern, but there were many exceptions to the 
basic sequence. For example, P8 preceded P5 in 
9% of the birds, and P3 preceded P9 18% of the 
time. 
Females initiated molt sooner, and average 
molt scores of males lagged slightly behind those 
of females each month of the study (Fig. 6). Molt 
scores of females averaged greater than those 
of males (paired /-test; P = 0.0064; df = 69; 
■ill.. 
! i2ii„,( NUmber ° f fledglings P cr nest structure with a si 
are included. 
ngle nest opening. Only nests where no escapees were recorded 
