An experimental test of preferences for nest contents in an obligate brood parasite, Molothrus ater

White, David J.; Ho, Lucy; Santos, Guadalupe de los; Godoy, Irene

doi:10.1093/beheco/arm062

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…attractive smell) frequently rejected than model eggs in unparasitized nests, an effect that we did not detect. However, we know that cuckoos prefer to parasitize hosts of particular phenotypes (Soler et al ., ; Avilés et al ., ; Cherry et al ., ; Polacikova et al ., ; Begum et al ., ; Molina‐Morales et al ., ) that might be related to the ability to detect and eject parasitic eggs (White et al ., ), and such biases could reduce the predicted effects of our experiment. Finally, we also suggest that the extremely short time used by parasitic cuckoos to lay their eggs may be a means to not only reduce the probability of being detected by hosts (Sealy et al ., ), but also to reduce odour deposition on host eggs and nests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Recognizing odd smells and ejection of brood parasitic eggs. An experimental test in magpies of a novel defensive trait against brood parasitism

Soler

Pérez‐Contreras

Neve

et al. 2014

J of Evolutionary Biology

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One of the most important defensive host traits against brood parasitism is the detection and ejection of parasitic eggs from their nests. Here, we explore the possible role of olfaction in this defensive behaviour. We performed egg-recognition tests in magpie Pica pica nests with model eggs resembling those of parasitic great spotted cuckoos Clamator glandarius. In one of the experiment, experimental model eggs were exposed to strong or moderate smell of tobacco smoke, whereas those of a third group (control) were cleaned with disinfecting wipes and kept in boxes containing odourless cotton. Results showed that model eggs with strong tobacco scent were more frequently ejected compared with control ones. In another experiment, models were smeared with scents from cloacal wash from magpies (control), cloacal wash or uropygial secretions from cuckoos, or human scents. This experiment resulted in a statistically significant effect of treatment in unparasitized magpie nests in which control model eggs handled by humans were more often rejected. These results provide the first evidence that hosts of brood parasites use their olfactory ability to detect and eject foreign eggs from their nests. These findings may have important consequences for handling procedures of experimental eggs used in egg-recognition tests, in addition to our understanding of interactions between brood parasites and their hosts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Recognizing odd smells and ejection of brood parasitic eggs. An experimental test in magpies of a novel defensive trait against brood parasitism

Soler

Pérez‐Contreras

Neve

et al. 2014

J of Evolutionary Biology

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“…Some of the cognitive processes involved in brood parasitism have been examined in current research. These include spatial memory, especially sex differences in spatial memory (Astié et al 1998;Guigueno et al 2014Guigueno et al , 2015Astié et al 2015), numerical ability (White et al 2007(White et al , 2009) and specializations in the brain that accompany these cognitive specializations (Sherry et al 1993;Reboreda et al 1996;Clayton et al 1997;Nair-Roberts et al 2006;Guigueno et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition and the brain of brood parasitic cowbirds

Sherry

Guigueno

2019

Integrative Zoology

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Cowbirds are brood parasites. Females lay their eggs in the nests of other species which then incubate the cowbird eggs and raise the young cowbirds. Finding and returning to heterospecific nests presents cowbirds with a number of cognitive challenges. In some species, such as brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater), females but not males, search for and remember the locations of potential host nests. We describe recent research on sex differences in cognition and the hippocampus associated with this sex difference in search for host nests. Female brown-headed cowbirds perform better than males on some, but not all, tests of spatial memory and females show a pattern of adult hippocampal neurogenesis not found in males or in closely related non-parasitic birds. Because of the apparent specialization of the hippocampus, brown-headed cowbirds may be a good model in which to examine spatial information processing in the avian hippocampus and we also describe recent research on the spatial response properties of brown-headed cowbird hippocampal neurons. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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“…For example, we did not take into account host behavior (Smith 1981, Tewksbury et al 2002, Garamszegi and Aviles 2005, host quality (Hauber 2001), parasite age (White et al 2007), competition between cowbirds (McClaren and Sealy 2000, Jensen andCully 2005) and Note: models ranked by descending corrected Akaike weights (w i ); k is the number of parameters, AIC c is Akaike's information criterion corrected for sample size, and DAIC c is the change in AIC c from the best model. For example, we did not take into account host behavior (Smith 1981, Tewksbury et al 2002, Garamszegi and Aviles 2005, host quality (Hauber 2001), parasite age (White et al 2007), competition between cowbirds (McClaren and Sealy 2000, Jensen andCully 2005) and Note: models ranked by descending corrected Akaike weights (w i ); k is the number of parameters, AIC c is Akaike's information criterion corrected for sample size, and DAIC c is the change in AIC c from the best model.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results of this study do not imply that nest placement is inconsequential to cowbird productivity. For example, we did not take into account host behavior (Smith 1981, Tewksbury et al 2002, Garamszegi and Aviles 2005, host quality (Hauber 2001), parasite age (White et al 2007), competition between cowbirds (McClaren and Sealy 2000, Jensen andCully 2005) and (rose) or Salix sp. (willow).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does nesting habitat predict hatch synchrony between brood parasitic brown‐headed cowbirdsMolothrus aterand two host species?

Tonra¹,

Johnson²,

Heath³

et al. 2009

Ecography

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Nestling brown-headed cowbirds Molothrus ater typically hatch earlier and grow faster than young of the many host species of this generalist obligate brood parasite. However, a cowbird chick also benefits from the presence of some host nest mates as the parasite is provisioned disproportionately more with increasing brood size. Since asynchronous hatching affects both cowbird and host nestlings' growth and survival, mechanisms that optimize the timing of egg-laying by female parasites should be prevalent. Several habitat features might facilitate optimal timing of parasitic egg-laying and we examined whether aspects of host nesting habitat predicted cowbird hatching synchrony. We tested whether synchronous nests were less concealed, closer to perches, and located in areas of higher host density than asynchronous nests using a broad-scale information theoretic approach. There was no support for these predictions regarding song sparrow (Melospiza melodia; n055) or yellow warbler (Dendroica petechia; n067) nests parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds at Mono Lake, USA. For example, the best statistical models for predicting hatching synchrony in yellow warbler nests included nesting-patch width and nest-substrate shrub species. However, these relationships were relatively weak: both synchronous and asynchronous nests were in patches with statistically indistinguishable widths and the two dominant shrub species at our site contained similar proportions of synchronous and asynchronous nests. We conclude that the variability of host nesting habitats does not contribute to a biologically consistent effect on hatching synchrony by this generalist brood parasite.

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An experimental test of preferences for nest contents in an obligate brood parasite, Molothrus ater

Cited by 25 publications

References 24 publications

Recognizing odd smells and ejection of brood parasitic eggs. An experimental test in magpies of a novel defensive trait against brood parasitism

Recognizing odd smells and ejection of brood parasitic eggs. An experimental test in magpies of a novel defensive trait against brood parasitism

Cognition and the brain of brood parasitic cowbirds

Does nesting habitat predict hatch synchrony between brood parasitic brown‐headed cowbirdsMolothrus aterand two host species?

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