Environmental quality predicts parental provisioning decisions

Although avian parents appear to exhibit a variety of feeding strategies in nature, there currently exist no models or theories that account for this range of diversity. Here we present the results of a computer simulation designed to model interdependent parental decisions, where investment is meted out in small doses, and must be distributed over time to maximize return on investment at the end of the parental care period. With this technique we show that the success of various simple observed parental rules of thumb varies with environmental resource level, and that increasing the complexity of parental decision rules does not necessarily result in increased fitness.