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This text describes the data presented in the paper: Seasonal changes in the hippocampal formation of hoarding and non-hoarding tits 

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Introductory information
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Files included in the data deposit (include a short description of what data are contained): 

1) Behaviour2005-2006: contains the summary of daily behaviour observations in willow tits in 2005-2006
2) SeasonalBrains2006-2007: contains all the data on the birds that were captured in 2006-2007 and whose anatomical data were used in the paper


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Methodological information
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A brief method description – what the data is, how and why it was collected or created, and how it was processed:

The methods are described in detail in our paper in Learning and Behaviour. 
In brief, these data describe a seasonal pattern in hoarding and eating behaviour (dataset 1) in willow tits in Northern Finland, and anatomical measurement (mostly neuroanatomical, some of other body parts; dataset 2) of willow tits and great tits from Northern Finland.

Instruments, hardware and software used: 

N/A

Date(s) of data collection: 
August 2005-September 2007 in the field, up to Summer 2008 for the neuroanatomical quantification.

Geographic coverage of data:
Birds and behaviour data were collected near Oulu in Finland.


Data validation (how was the data checked, proofed and cleaned):
Neuroanatomical quantification was done blind to the identity of the birds (and the season they were captured). 


Overview of secondary data, if used:
N/A


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Data-specific information
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Definitions of names, labels, acronyms or specialist terminology uses for variables, records and their values: 
Dataset 1: 
ID: unique ID for each observation day
Year: autumn-winter years when observation were made
date: actual date of the observation day
daylength: proportion of the day between sunrise and sunset
eatperh: average number of items eaten per hour (obtained by dividing the number of eating events observed in that day by the total length of valid observations for the day)
hoardperh: average number of items hoarded per hour (obtained by dividing the number of eating events observed in that day by the total length of valid observations for the day)
eatcountph: eatpherh rounded
hoardcountph: hoardperh rounded
Tmin: observed minimum temperature on that day for the observation site (local weather station data)
Tmax: observed maximum temperature on that day for the observation site (local weather station data)
Tmean: observed mean temperature on that day for the observation site (local weather station data)
allcountph: sum of eatcountph and hoardcountph

Dataset 2:
BrainID: unique ID for each bird in the dataset
period: time of year the bird was captured
date: actual date on which that bird was captured
sex: M=male, F=female
Hemisp: brain hemisphere processed (RH=right hemisphere; LH=left hemisphere)
species: GT=great tit; WT=willow tit
time captured: time of day the bird was captured
time processed: time of day the bird was killed and dissected
bagtime: time between capture and killing, during which the bird was held in a bird bag in the field
Telmm3: volume of the telencephalon in mm3
Hipmm3: volume of the hippocampal formation in mm3
RTmm3: volume of nucleus rotundus in mm3
neurons: estimated total number of neurons
smallcells: estimated total number of small cells (may be a mix of neurons and glia)
wing: winglength in mm
tarsus: tarsometatarsus length in mm
mass: body mass in g
fat: fat score in the furculum
lntel: natural log transformed telencephalon volume
lnHF: natural log transformed hippocampal formation volume
lnRt: natural log transformed nucleus rotundus volume
lntars: natural log transformed tarsometatarsus length
lnwing: natural log transformed wing length
lnmass: natural log transformed body mass
lnFat: natural log transformed fat score
lnneurons: natural log transformed number of neurons
lnsmall cells: natural log transformed number of small cells
Town or Forest: whether a bird was capture in a town or in the forest.


Explanation of weighting and grossing variables: 
N/A


Outline any missing data:
N/A


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Contact
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Please contact rdm@ncl.ac.uk for further information