Data from: Hot temperatures during the dry season reduce survival of a resident tropical bird

Understanding how climate change will shape species distributions in the future requires a functional understanding of the demographic responses of animals to their environment. For birds, most of our knowledge of how climate influences population vital rates stems from research in temperate environments, even though most of the Earth's avian diversity is concentrated in the tropics. We evaluated effects of Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and local temperature and rainfall at multiple temporal scales on sex-specific survival of a resident tropical bird, the Rufous-and-White Wren Thryophilus rufalbus, studied over 15 years in the dry forests of northwestern Costa Rica. We found that annual apparent survival of males was 8% higher than females, more variable over time, and responded more strongly to environmental variation than female survival, which did not vary strongly with SOI or local weather. For males, mean and maximum local temperatures were better predictors of survival than either rainfall or SOI, with high temperatures during the dry season and early wet season negatively influencing survival. These results suggest that, even for species adapted to hot environments, further temperature increases may threaten the persistence of local populations in the absence of distributional shifts.Mark-recapture/re-sighting data and model codeThis file contains: (1) mark-recapture/re-sighting data summarized in m-array format for Rufous-and-white Wrens (Thryophilus rufalbus) from Sector Santa Rosa of the Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern, Costa Rica (10°52'N, 85°36'W) collected from 2003-2017; (2) a description of the climate and weather covariates included in survival analyses; and (3) R and JAGS code for estimating effects of climate and weather on sex-specific survival of Rufous-and-white Wrens.Woodworth_et_al_CMR_DATA_AND_MODEL_CODE.txtClimate and weather dataThe contents and structure of this file are described in Woodworth_et_al_CMR_DATA_AND_MODEL_CODE.txtWoodworth_et_al_CLIMATE_AND_WEATHER_DATA.cs