Supplementary feeding experiment
Supplementary feeding started before or during incubation and ended
around fledging at a brood age of c. 52 days. We mounted feeding
platforms in the territory of selected red kite breeding pairs in open
fields near the nest (distance to the nest: 20 – 200 m), where they
were easily accessible to the red kites. Platforms consisted of a 0.6 m
x 0.6 m wooden board on a 2 m post. Every second day, we placed five
dead individuals of day-old chickens per adult and per nestling on the
platforms when nestlings were ≤ 9 days old, and ten chickens per
nestling when they were > 9 days old
(for
details on the supplementary feeding experiment, see Nägeli et al. 2022;
Scherler et al. 2023b).