Correlates of Reproductive Success in Cooperatively Breeding Western American Crows: If Helpers Help, It's Not by Much

I measured annual reproductive success for a resident population of cooperatively breeding Western American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos hesperis) over 6 years, and examined the relationship between it and several ecological and social variables. Most nests (57%) failed to fledge any young, due largely to predation. Success in fledging young was associated with three interrelated variables: (1) the presence of helpers, (2) early nesting, and (3) consistent differences between pairs. Assisted pairs began incubation earlier, some pairs consistently nested early, and the proportion of years that pairs were successful was related to the proportion of years in which they had help. Although both help and incubation date were related to nesting success independent of each other, the effect of help became nonsignificant after controlling for differences between pairs. The slight increase in fledging success possibly attributable to helpers may have been the result of consistently successful pairs succeeding, with help, in otherwise poor years. Postfledging survival was related in part to the size of individuals; larger nestlings tended to have a greater chance of fledging, and once fledged, to have a greater chance of surviving the following 2-week period. Larger nestlings survived to one year of age significantly more often than smaller nestlings.