Global Warming as Revealed Through Thirty Years of Analysis on Breeding of Mediterranean Tits

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript examines the impact of climate change on the reproductive parameters of great tits and blue tits in Mediterranean habitats over 30 years. The long-term, habitat-specific analysis significantly enhances understanding of birds' responses to global warming. The study is well-conducted, with data-supported conclusions and comparisons to previous research. However, a few corrections are needed to improve clarity and accessibility.

The introduction does not clearly emphasize the research's contribution and its uniqueness compared to existing studies.

 Lines 17-21:The sentence structure is complex and can be simplified for clarity.

Lines 62-67: The sentences combine too many ideas (phenology, species of Swedish tits, and basal metabolic rate) and are difficult to follow. I would suggest presenting the information more clearly to make it easier to read.

Lines 93-94: If Figure 1 is adequately described below, the additional explanation in lines 93–94 seems unnecessary unless it provides essential context.

 

Line 119: The citation font in line 119 should be checked to ensure it matches the main text font in style and size.

 

Author Response

We followed all the suggestions of the referee and tried to change the manuscript accordingly.

Changes on the manuscript have been carried out following the suggestions of the referee

We thank the referee very much

Comment: The introduction does not clearly emphasize the research's contribution and its uniqueness compared to existing studies.

Reply: Done

Comment: Lines 17-21:The sentence structure is complex and can be simplified for clarity.

Reply: Done, reported only the total anticipation

Comment: Lines 62-67: The sentences combine too many ideas (phenology, species of Swedish tits, and basal metabolic rate) and are difficult to follow. I would suggest presenting the information more clearly to make it easier to read.

Reply: Modified a little

Comment: Lines 93-94: If Figure 1 is adequately described below, the additional explanation in lines 93–94 seems unnecessary unless it provides essential context.  

Reply: Changed figure and relative text

Comment: Line 119: The citation font in line 119 should be checked to ensure it matches the main text font in style and size.

Reply: Done

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript entitled “Global warming as revealed through thirty years of studies on Mediterranean Tits” investigates the breeding of two species of tits over three decades in three habitats and studied the correlation between temperature and laying date and breeding success. This manuscript could contribution to bird conservation and forest management. However, I have some comments to perfect it.

Main concerns

“Materials and methods” section is not clear. It could be re-sorted. Readers have no found the “Bird monitoring”, “Prey surveys” and “Meteorological data collecting”. Authors could add the subtitle “2.2 Bird monitoring, 2.3 Prey surveys, 2.4 Meteorological data collecting”. The final subtitle is Statistical Analysis. Besides, the Statistical Analysis is also unclear. What is your Analysis aim? What method did you use? How did you create the models, and what are the reasonable variables and predicated variables? It may be better to correspond one-to-one with the results section.

 

Line 79-80 Figure 1 looks messy. It is better to add the plotting scale and compass. Because plotting scale could display the distance of nest colony. Figure could display the forest types and Legend that shows the species nest.

Breeding success of bird involves so many factors, such as human activity, predators, microhabitat and regional community. These should be mentioned in the discussion section.

 

Conclusion section is too long and should be shortened. This section should be clear that display the key finding of the current study and conservation implication of forests. Line 428-442 commonly disappear in the conclusion section, which should be moved into the discussion section.

From my perspective, the title could be modified. Manuscript itself is a study, the “study” is no need to appear in the title. Due to MS investigate the breeding success, laying date, I suggest that tile could be modified that related to breeding.

 

Mini concerns

Line 11 “advanced……” could be changed to “regulated”.

Line 35-36 The first paragraph could be merged into second paragraph.

Line 113-137 How did you build models? And who is the response variable and who is the predicted models?

Line 139-218 It is better to add the statistics and P value based on the model results.

Line 158-159 Please ensure that the decimal places are consistent. And it is clear to add the estimate value of models.

Line 214-217 The method of Chi square should be addressed in the Statistical Analysis section.

Author Response

We changed the Title of the manuscript, as suggested by the referee, completed the structure of Material and Methods, adding some information requested by the referee, changed the Fig. 1 following the suggestions of the referee and shortened the Conclusions, moving some concepts to the Discussion.

In addition, we followed the mini concerns of the referee

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

The manuscript under review is devoted to two species of tits. The breeding success of tits depending on temperature changes is the main idea of ​​the manuscript. This could have been reflected in the title of the manuscript. The authors approached this more broadly, but were unable to fully disclose the stated topic of the manuscript based on the wording. They paid attention to nutrition, but did not fully characterize the results for three sites. And this needs to be done. In the Discussion, due attention is paid to the comparison with other results of the authors, but it is known that among insectivorous birds, tits have obvious competitors. Yes, competition between these two tits was not revealed, but due attention was not paid to possible competitors among other birds. The manuscript needs additional illustrative material. The authors have it. They conducted video observations and write that the chicks in some cases grew faster. This can be shown in photographs of chicks of the same age from different nests. Then the reader will really have no questions. The text of the manuscript is mixed up in different chapters and should be moved to the appropriate chapters. In many methodological aspects, the authors omit important information. It should be added. The comparative part in the discussion needs to be expanded. A hypothesis should be added. After all the comments have been corrected, the manuscript can be reviewed again.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

The referee required us to make several changes, both in the structure of the paper and in the position of some sentences. We have attempted to accommodate his suggestions and thank him for pointing out other useful bibliography to cite. In addition, we have added two more figures to complete the contents of the article.

We attach the replies to the referee

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Current version of manuscript have great improvement comparing with the previous version. As a whole, the MS could be accepted. However, the reviewer have other comments.

Line 110 The figure 1 still is not up to a better figure that displays the sample legends and sample distributions. If a plotting scale occurs in the figure, double sided arrow that represents distance is unnecessary. More arrows seem messy. Besides, the figure should include the longitude and latitude. An excellent figure should be clear and simple. The current version is messy and complex, and not readable.

Line 190 Please ensure that the decimal point is kept to the same number of digits in table 1

Line 238-240 this sentence is the analysis, which should be moved into the discussion section. The reference should not appear in the result section.

Line 257-258 the figure is incomplete. What does the vertical axis represent? Please add.

Reference style is inconsistent, especially the DOI style.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

None.

Author Response

We thank very much the referee

Comment: Line 110 The figure 1 still is not up to a better figure that displays the sample legends and sample distributions. If a plotting scale occurs in the figure, double sided arrow that represents distance is unnecessary. More arrows seem messy. Besides, the figure should include the longitude and latitude. An excellent figure should be clear and simple. The current version is messy and complex, and not readable.  

Reply: Changed

Comment: Line 190 Please ensure that the decimal point is kept to the same number of digits in table 1

Reply: Done

Comment: Line 238-240 this sentence is the analysis, which should be moved into the discussion section. The reference should not appear in the result section.

Reply: Changed, reported only the results, discussed in the Discussion

Comment: Line 257-258 the figure is incomplete. What does the vertical axis represent? Please add.

Reply: It is the percentage of prey, we added it

Comment:

Reference style is inconsistent, especially the DOI style.

Reply: Changed

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

I am satisfied with the revision of the manuscript. Additional data and corrections have been added to the manuscript. The manuscript has become better. Indeed, the breeding of tit can be used to judge climate change. The graph has been changed. Illustrations have been added. The review of the research results was chosen appropriately, as were the statistical methods used for its analysis. The article takes into account the comments on the methodology. The analysis and conclusion for each chapter are sufficient and do not raise objections. References to sources of literature have been adjusted. The results of previous studies by other authors have been taken into account. I recommend it for the journal Forests.

Author Response

Abstract – Changes made.

Lines 35-36 – Merged with following sentence.

Line 40 – added other references

Line 41 – explained extreme events in brackets

Line 43 – Modified and added suggested references

Lines 62-66 – added author and year of the species

Lines 68-71 – Moved to Material & Methods

Lines 72-73 and 77 – Deleted

Figure 1 – We preferred to leave the information on the vegetation in the figure, changing the caption

Lines 109-110 – We explained better the method of recording

Line 128 – 728 of Great tits and 1108 of Blue tits are the numbers of breeding pairs followed in three decades

Lines 140-141 – changed

Lines 146-147 – added the p-value

Lines 191-192 – Cases of predation were not frequent; we obtained from the video-cameras and photo-traps some proofs of predation. The photos of two of them are included in the text, but we have not the total number of predated nests. Concerning the second broods are very rare in Sicily, probably for the scarcity of food

Line 195 – deleted

Lines 205-207 – specified as requested

Lines 208-214 – We performed a new figure containing the percentage of different prey types in the three habitats for the two species to show the importance of caterpillars only in the oakwood

Lines 259-280 – We tried to modify the text according to the suggestions of the referee

Line 302 – explained better

Lines 304-314 – Moved above in the Discussion

Line 335 – Added our opinion

Lines 352-357 – The paragraph has been explained better

Line 372 – We have explained this in the results, also adding the Fig. 4

Lines 377-379 – Explained better

Lines 380-383 – Explained better

Line 396 – little changed

Lines 401-403 – Merged with the following sentence

Lines 430-435 – Moved to the Discussion

Line 466 – Added the references suggested