This file contains data from a novel object test performed on incubating female great tits in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2018, to test for effects of toxic metal pollution and anthropogenic disturbance levels on neophobia and other behavioral traits. Incubating females were presented with up to two different novel objects which were placed on the top of the nest box. We recorded the latency of females to return to the nest ("On 1" in the file) in the presence of a novel object, after being flushed from the nest. To account for differences in sensitivity to disturbance at the nest, the return latency of all females was also recorded during a baseline trial, in which females were flushed from the nest, but no novel object was placed on top of the box. The file contains information on trial type (O = object, B = baseline), female ID, study site, nest box ID, distance from the metal pollution source, distance from public paths/roads, and whether or not the box was in a publicly accessible area for all trials. Nest date, recording time, the order of trials and female age (ASY=after second year, SY=second year) are also included. The column "On 1" contains return latencies, and was our primary response variable. Female novel environment exploration scores and hissing (nest defense) scores are also included, as are fledgling numbers. This data was used to assess relationships between neophobia, other behavioral traits, and fitness
