Table 1:

Deviance information criterion (DIC) table for models considered. “Mean deviance” is the average deviance of the posterior. ΔDIC is defined as the difference in DIC between the model with the smallest DIC and the focal model. Note that the “Full model” is in bold to highlight that it was the best model according to DIC.

Model name	Mean deviance	Number of parameters	DIC	ΔDIC
Full model	336.9	17	494.5	0
No production type	339.7	15	497.1	2.5
No bird age	345.8	15	503.7	9.1
No collection date	341.2	10	499.1	4.6
No sample	450.1	16	575.3	80.7