MATING SYSTEMS AND REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF NEOTROPICAL WATERBIRDS

Abstract

The present paper reviews the published information on the mating systems and reproductive biology of Neotropical waterbirds. Thirty-four scientific articles were included, which were divided into two main
themes: “mating systems” (10 articles) and “reproductive biology” (24 articles). Extra-pair copulation and/or fertilization were reported to occur in 60% of the Neotropical species investigated, while monogamy was
reported in 22%, bigamy in 11% and nest parasitism in 11%. General aspects of reproductive biology of 30 species were more extensively reviewed, of which 20 were seabirds and 10 were lacustrine species. Aspects most frequently described were reproductive chronology (73% of species), clutch size (80%) and reproductive success defined by the number of hatched eggs (73%). Only one species in Sulidae (Sula leucogaster) and one in Threskiornithidae (Eudocimus rubber) were studied for both, mating system and reproduction. A global analysis of the available data revealed that seabirds and Ciconiiformes birds were most intensively studied in terms of reproductive biology, while their mating systems remain largely uninvestigated.