An Experimental and Teleonomic Investigation of Avian Brood Parasitism

Rothstein, Stephen I.

doi:10.2307/1366221

Cited by 442 publications

(329 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…Therefore, egg removal by female cowbirds may serve to reduce clutch size and hence increase its egg's chances of hatching sooner, especially in larger host species. Rothstein (1975) suggested that Brown-headed Cowbirds may have initially parasitized larger host species. The strategy of egg removal may have allowed cowbirds to increase their chances of successfully parasitizing a larger host species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Egg Removal by Brown-Headed Cowbirds: A Field Test of the Host Incubation Efficiency Hypothesis

Wood¹,

Bollinger²

1997

The Condor

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Abstract. Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) often remove host eggs, usually to the detriment of the host's reproductive success. We tested the hypothesis that host egg size and number influence the incubation efficiency of a parasitic egg. A single House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) or Brown-headed Cowbird egg was placed in each host nest (addition), and in some nests a host egg was removed as well (addition/removal). Hatching success and incubation length were measured to determine whether host-egg removal conferred an advantage in incubation efficiency compared to simple addition of a parasitic egg. Redwinged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) and Chipping Sparrows (Spizella passerina) served as medium-sized and small-sized host species, respectively. In Red-winged Blackbird nests, host-egg removal produced smaller clutches, and parasitic eggs had shorter incubation lengths in smaller clutches. However, the parasitic egg's incubation length and probability of hatching did not differ between the addition and addition/removal treatments. Parasitic eggs in Chipping Sparrow nests had shorter incubation periods than in blackbird nests and frequently caused the inefficient incubation of host eggs. Egg removal again did not reduce incubation lengths or increase hatchability of parasitic eggs. Thus, we found little support for the incubation efficiency hypothesis to explain host-egg removal by Brown-headed Cowbirds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Egg Removal by Brown-Headed Cowbirds: A Field Test of the Host Incubation Efficiency Hypothesis

Wood¹,

Bollinger²

1997

The Condor

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“…Although cowbird nestlings often hatch before host nestlings because of a short incubation period (Briskie and Sealy 1990), nestling age was standardized in experiments (see below) to control for developmental stage because differences of only 1-2 days in age can markedly influence the begging behaviors of nestlings and their ability to compete for food (Khayutin 1985). It should be noted that the thrasher typically rejects cowbird eggs placed in its nest (Rothstein 1975), although thrashers do occasionally raise cowbirds on the study site (J. W. Rivers, unpublished data). However, inclusion of the thrasher is warranted in this study because it was the only available large species that fulfilled the goal of isolating host size as a focal variable.…”

Section: Study Area and Host Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent-absent begging in the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater): the role of short-term need and nestmate size

Rivers

2009

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Although it is well-established that nestlings of many altricial species beg when parents are away from the nest, we have a poor understanding of parent-absent begging in brood parasites, including the proximate factors that may influence begging frequency and intensity. In this study, I examined how parent-absent begging was influenced by competitive asymmetries between host and Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) nestlings under disparate levels of short-term need. Food-deprived cowbird nestlings begged more frequently and for a greater proportion of parent-absent period than when food-supplemented, with similar patterns observed in hosts of different sizes. In contrast, three metrics of cowbird begging intensity varied relative to host size but not due to differences in short-term need. Cowbirds consistently begged more frequently and intensively than host nestlings for a given level of short-term need, providing evidence that cowbird begging displays are more frequent and intense than non-parasitic nestlings during both feeding visits and parent-absent periods. In sum, the frequency of begging by cowbirds was only influenced by short-term need, whereas begging intensity during parent-absent events was only influenced by the host against which cowbirds competed. This study demonstrates that host size and shortterm need had differing influences on the frequency and intensity of parent-absent begging in cowbirds, although both factors are likely important in limiting the evolution of parent-absent begging in cowbirds. Because it appears to provide no immediate benefits yet may decrease fitness, parent-absent begging should be included in future theoretical models investigating the evolution of begging displays in nestling birds.

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“…As predicted, there was no evidence for recognition: host and foreign chicks did not differ in survival rate (Figure 2f; Wilcoxon signed-rank test on proportion of non-template chicks surviving, W = 7.0, n = 15, two-tailed P = 0.57) or in parental feeding rate (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, W = 12.0, n = 15, twotailed P = 0.32). The design of the "mixed synchrony" experiments also enabled us to test and reject an alternative explanation for the patterns of rejection that we observed in the "host first" and "foreign first" experiments: recognition of the majority phenotype 26 (see Supplementary Information for details).…”

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Coots use hatch order to learn to recognize and reject conspecific brood parasitic chicks

Shizuka

Lyon

2009

Nature

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Avian brood parasites and their hosts provide model systems for investigating links between recognition, learning, and their fitness consequences. [1][2][3][4] One major evolutionary puzzle has continued to capture the attention of naturalists for centuries: why do hosts of brood parasites generally fail to recognize parasitic offspring after they have hatched from the egg, 5-9 even when the host and parasitic chicks differ to almost comic degrees? 7 One prominent theory to explain this pattern proposes that the costs of mistakenly learning to recognize the wrong offspring make recognition maladaptive. 10 Here we show that American coots, Fulica americana, can recognize and reject parasitic chicks in their brood by using learned cues, despite the fact that the hosts and the brood parasites are of the same species. A series of chick cross-fostering experiments confirm that coots use first-hatched chicks in a brood as referents to learn to recognize their own chicks and then discriminate against later-hatched parasitic chicks in the same brood. When experimentally provided with the wrong reference chicks, coots can be induced to discriminate against their own offspring, confirming that the learning errors proposed by theory can exist. 10 However, learning based on hatching order is reliable in naturally parasitized coot nests because host eggs hatch predictably ahead of parasite eggs. Conversely, a lack of reliable information may help to explain why the evolution of chick recognition is not more common in hosts of most interspecific brood parasites.The puzzling absence of chick recognition as a host defense against avian brood parasites has fuelled a long-standing and unresolved debate over what constrains the evolution of such a seemingly obvious host adaptation, producing many alternative hypotheses. 8, 9,[11][12][13][14] Learning is an important component of host defenses such as egg recognition, 2,15,16 , and theory suggests that it could be fundamental to the presence or absence of chick recognition in some taxa as well. 10,17 One prominent theory 10 shows that if chick recognition were learned, as it is with eggs, 2,15,16 then the evolution of parasitic chick recognition in hosts of common cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, could be constrained simply by the costs of errors in learning. Shortly after hatching, cuckoo chicks evict all host eggs and chicks, 7 and hosts are assumed to learn the features of their own eggs and chicks in their first breeding attempt. 2,15 According to the theory, a host parasitized during its first breeding attempt would falsely imprint on the lone parasite as its own chick, and thereafter reject its own offspring for the rest of its life. The extreme fitness costs of such misimprinting 10 could potentially explain why so many cuckoo hosts, and perhaps the hosts of other parasitic species, 17 do not recognize parasitic chicks. Because this misimprinting hypothesis was proposed to explain the absence of adaptation, it cannot be tested directly, but two corollary predictions are tes...

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An Experimental and Teleonomic Investigation of Avian Brood Parasitism

Cited by 442 publications

References 32 publications

Egg Removal by Brown-Headed Cowbirds: A Field Test of the Host Incubation Efficiency Hypothesis

Egg Removal by Brown-Headed Cowbirds: A Field Test of the Host Incubation Efficiency Hypothesis

Parent-absent begging in the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater): the role of short-term need and nestmate size

Coots use hatch order to learn to recognize and reject conspecific brood parasitic chicks

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