Table 1.

Body mass, mass-corrected BMR (average±s.e.) and bactericidal activity of whole blood (average % of colony forming units, CFU, killed±s.e.) for 12 species of tropical birds.

species		body mass (g)	BMR (kJ d−1 g−0.638)	n	bactericidal activity (% CFU killed)	n
bicoloured antbird	Gymnopithys leucaspis	27.2	3.4±0.11	8	99.9±0.04	5
blue-crowned motmot	Momotus momota	99.7	2.2±0.15	4	99.1±0.38	8
blue–gray tanager	Thraupis episcopus	30.4	4.1±0.11	8	11.2±6.66	15
clay-coloured robin	Turdus grayi	72.0	3.8±0.16	10	82.9±4.20	30
crimson-backed tanager	Ramphoceles dimidiatus	26.4	4.0±0.12	8	49.0±9.53	11
dusky antbird	Cercomacra tyrannina	14.0	3.0±0.25	3	93.3±6.50	2
grey-headed tanager	Eucometis penicillatus	30.9	3.7±0.23	3	90.9±4.90	7
house wren	Troglodytes aedon	13.3	3.5±0.07	28	89.0±3.06	27
red-capped manakin	Pipra mentalis	14.7	4.1±0.17	7	−3.4±8.92	6
ruddy ground dove	Columbina talpacoti	44.8	3.1±0.56	7	−3.2±5.60	18
slaty antshrike	Thamnophilus punctatus	20.5	3.5±0.41	3	99.6±0.27	3
spotted antbird	Hylophylax naevioides	16.9	3.6±0.16	6	94.6±2.56	10

NB. Values reported for the house wren in this table and figure 1a cannot be compared with values in figure 1b due to the use of different dilutions of blood and media (see §2).