Proficient incubation by inexperienced Savannah Sparrows Passerculus sandwichensis

We compared the incubation behaviour of 1‐year‐old female Savannah Sparrows Passerculus sandwichensis nesting for the first time with that of older females that had nested in previous years on Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada. Using temperature probes inserted into 32 nests, we determined the length and variability of incubation shifts and recesses over 99 nest‐days. At 14 of the nests, known‐age females were matched, each pair consisting of an inexperienced yearling and an experienced older female, and nest temperatures were measured simultaneously. In addition, we quantified the duration of night‐time incubation and the mean length and variation of more than 1350 incubation shifts and recesses as a function of female age, weather, time of day and date. In all respects, yearling and older females had equivalent incubation behaviour. The similarity between yearlings and older females suggests that fundamental aspects of incubation behaviour may be largely innate and unaffected by prior reproductive experience or other age‐related variables.