Feeding of nestling and fledgling brood parasites by individuals other than the foster parents: a review

1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (11) ◽  
pp. 1739-1752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer G. Sealy ◽  
Janice C. Lorenzana
Keyword(s):  
Host Specificity ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Food Resources ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Vocal Mimicry ◽  
Supernormal Stimulus ◽  
Extra Food ◽  
Nestling Competition

We summarize 67 reports of 13 species of brood-parasitic young, mostly fledglings, being fed by individuals other than the host. We refer to this behavior as auxiliary feeding. The parasite gains extra food resources, whereas the adult that feeds the parasite appears to behave maladaptively. The parasite may present a supernormal stimulus, manipulating unrelated adults into feeding it. Most auxiliary feedings were observed in brood parasites that were raised by small hosts. Host specificity, vocal mimicry, visual mimicry, and nestling competition apparently were not associated with the number of records of auxiliary feedings; however, the trends could not be analyzed statistically because of the anecdotal nature of the observations for each species. Still to be determined is whether obtaining auxiliary feeding is a strategy used by some brood-parasitic species, particularly the pallid cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus).

scholarly journals Coevolution is linked with phenotypic diversification but not speciation in avian brood parasites

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1821) ◽  
pp. 20152056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliana Medina ◽  
Naomi E. Langmore
Keyword(s):  
Egg Size ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Phenotypic Diversity ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Phenotypic Evolution ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Rates Of Evolution ◽  
Phenotypic Diversification

Coevolution is often invoked as an engine of biological diversity. Avian brood parasites and their hosts provide one of the best-known examples of coevolution. Brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of other species, selecting for host defences and reciprocal counteradaptations in parasites. In theory, this arms race should promote increased rates of speciation and phenotypic evolution. Here, we use recently developed methods to test whether the three largest avian brood parasitic lineages show changes in rates of phenotypic diversity and speciation relative to non-parasitic lineages. Our results challenge the accepted paradigm, and show that there is little consistent evidence that lineages of brood parasites have higher speciation or extinction rates than non-parasitic species. However, we provide the first evidence that the evolution of brood parasitic behaviour may affect rates of evolution in morphological traits associated with parasitism. Specifically, egg size and the colour and pattern of plumage have evolved up to nine times faster in parasitic than in non-parasitic cuckoos. Moreover, cuckoo clades of parasitic species that are sympatric (and share similar host genera) exhibit higher rates of phenotypic evolution. This supports the idea that competition for hosts may be linked to the high phenotypic diversity found in parasitic cuckoos.

scholarly journals Monogamy without parental care? Social and genetic mating systems of avian brood parasites

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1769) ◽  
pp. 20180201 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Feeney ◽  
Christina Riehl
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Host Density ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Social Monogamy ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Genetic Monogamy ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
The Social

Classic evolutionary theory predicts that monogamy should be intimately linked with parental care. It has long been assumed, therefore, that avian brood parasites—which lay their eggs in the nests of ‘host’ species and provide little, if any, parental care—should be overwhelmingly promiscuous. However, recent studies have revealed that the social mating systems of brood parasites are surprisingly diverse, encompassing lek polygyny, monogamy, polygamy and promiscuity. What ecological or phylogenetic factors explain this variation, and why are some brood parasites apparently monogamous? Here we review the social and genetic mating systems of all 75 brood parasitic species for which data are available and evaluate several hypotheses that may help explain these patterns. We find that social monogamy is widespread, often co-occurring with territoriality and cooperative behaviour by the mated pair. Comparative studies, though preliminary, suggest that in some species, monogamy is associated with low host density and polygamy with higher host density. Interestingly, molecular data show that genetic and social mating systems can be entirely decoupled: genetic monogamy can occur in parasitic species that lack behavioural pair-bonds, possibly as a by-product of territoriality; conversely, social monogamy has been reported in parasites that are genetically polygamous. This synthesis suggests that social and genetic monogamy may result from very different selective pressures, and that male–female cooperative behaviours, population density and territoriality may all interact to favour the evolution of monogamous mating in brood parasites. Given that detailed descriptive data of social, and especially genetic, mating systems are still lacking for the majority of brood parasitic species, definitive tests of these hypotheses await future work. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern’.

scholarly journals Killing behaviour of adult brood parasites

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Šulc ◽  
Gabriela Štětková ◽  
Václav Jelínek ◽  
Beata Czyż ◽  
Andrzej Dyrcz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Common Cuckoo ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
The Common

Avian brood parasites such as cuckoos or cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other (host) species. To fool their hosts, parasites evolved striking adaptations such as very fast egg-laying or eggs that mimic host eggs. Here, we present video-recordings where the common cuckoo females kill nestlings in host nests. This interesting behaviour has been also observed in other brood parasitic species and we speculate about its significance.

THE RED GAPE OF THE NESTLING CUCKOO (CUCULUS CANORUS) IS NOT A SUPERNORMAL STIMULUS FOR THREE COMMON HOSTS

Behaviour ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (6) ◽  
pp. 759-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Host Species ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Sibling Competition ◽  
Cuculus Canorus ◽  
Common Cuckoo ◽  
Parental Preference ◽  
Supernormal Stimulus ◽  
Parental Preferences ◽  
Main Host

AbstractThe bright red gape of the nestling common cuckoo Cuculus canorus has often been supposed to act as a supernormal stimulus to elicit provisioning from its foster parents. Parents of three main host species were tested for their response to their own nestlings with artificially reddened gapes. Robins, dunnocks and reed warblers allocated no more food to red-mouthed nestlings than to control nestlings in the same nest, and manipulations of the gape colour of whole broods of reed warblers revealed no effect on provisioning rates. Our data do not support the hypothesis that there is a universal parental preference for redder gapes in opennesting passerines, or that the bright red gape of nestling cuckoos has evolved to exploit parental preferences in these three hosts. We suggest that although mouth colour has little influence on the allocation of feeds resulting from sibling competition and begging intensity in these species, it may have a role under certain conditions.

Visual imprinting and auditory-discrimination learning in young of the canvasback and semiparasitic redhead (Anatidae)

1974 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E. Mattson ◽  
Roger M. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Learning ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Brood Parasitism ◽  
Auditory Discrimination ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Auditory Learning ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Aythya Americana

Laboratory studies were used to determine if visual imprinting and auditory-discrimination learning differ between ducklings of the semiparasitic redhead (Aythya americana) and canvasback (A. valisineria). Both species exhibited visual imprinting, but only canvasbacks exhibited evidence of auditory learning. Brood parasitism in redheads is apparently associated with a reduction in their ability to learn an auditory discrimination, but not in their ability to visually imprint to inanimate models.Canvasback responses were selectively enhanced by calls presented in the absence of a visual-imprinting stimulus. It is suggested that such an enhancement of responses to maternal calls when the parent is heard but not seen could facilitate the maintenance of family units in non-parasitic species like the canvasback. Redheads gave fewer responses to maternal calls than did canvasbacks, and their responses lo calls were virtually unaffected by withdrawal of an accompanying visual stimulus. The reduced auditory responsiveness arid learning in redheads, combined with the reduced effects of visual-stimulus withdrawal, could facilitate the ultimate and biologically necessary separation of these brood parasites from members of the foster species.

scholarly journals Nest Size Matters: Common Cuckoos Prefer to Parasitize Larger Nests of Oriental Reed Warblers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Longwu Wang ◽  
Gangbin He ◽  
Canchao Yang ◽  
Anders Pape Møller ◽  
Wei Liang
Keyword(s):  
Foster Parents ◽  
Nest Size ◽  
Reed Warbler ◽  
Artificial Nest ◽  
Cuculus Canorus ◽  
Common Cuckoo ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Nest Choice ◽  
Experimental Findings ◽  
Large Host

Abstract BackgroundAvian brood parasites leave parental care of their offspring to foster parents. Theory predicts that parasites should select for large host nests when they have sufficient available host nests at a given time. We developed an empirical experimental design to address this hypothesis by studying nest choice of common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) among nests of its Oriental reed warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) hosts.ResultsWe presented two groups of experimental nests: 1) nest dyads comprise one large and one small artificial nest from reed leaves, and 2) nest triads tied together use the modified old own warbler nests including enlarged, reduced and medium sized nests to elicit parasitism by common cuckoos. We predicted that cuckoos prefer larger nests over medium sized ones, and over the smallest nest. Our experimental findings show that common cuckoo females generally prefer large nests over medium or small sized nests. Furthermore, experiments showed that cuckoo parasitism was significantly more common than in previous studies of the same warbler population.ConclusionsOur results implying that larger, taller and more exposed host nests effectively increased the probability of cuckoo parasitism.

scholarly journals Imperfect mimicry of host begging calls by a brood parasitic cuckoo: a cue for nestling rejection by hosts?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hee-Jin Noh ◽  
Ros Gloag ◽  
Ana V Leitão ◽  
Naomi E Langmore
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Brood Parasite ◽  
Primary Host ◽  
Brood Parasites ◽  
Vocal Cues ◽  
Call Structure ◽  
Vocal Mimicry ◽  
Nestling Period ◽  
Imperfect Mimicry

Abstract Coevolutionary interactions between avian brood parasites and their hosts often lead to the evolution of discrimination and rejection of parasite eggs or chicks by hosts based on visual cues, and the evolution of visual mimicry of host eggs or chicks by brood parasites. Hosts may also base rejection of brood parasite nestlings on vocal cues, which would in turn select for mimicry of host begging calls in brood parasite chicks. In cuckoos that exploit multiple hosts with different begging calls, call structure may be plastic, allowing nestlings to modify their calls to match those of their various hosts, or fixed, in which case we would predict either imperfect mimicry or divergence of the species into host-specific lineages. In our study of the little bronze-cuckoo Chalcites minutillus and its primary host, the large-billed gerygone Gerygone magnirostris, we tested whether: (a) hosts use nestling vocalisations as a cue to discriminate cuckoo chicks; (b) cuckoo nestlings mimic the host begging calls throughout the nestling period; and (c) the cuckoo begging calls are plastic, thereby facilitating mimicry of the calls of different hosts. We found that the begging calls of little bronze-cuckoos are most similar to their gerygone hosts shortly after hatching (when rejection by hosts typically occurs) but become less similar as cuckoo chicks get older. Begging call structure may be used as a cue for rejection by hosts, and these results are consistent with gerygone defences selecting for age-specific vocal mimicry in cuckoo chicks. We found no evidence that little bronze-cuckoo begging calls were plastic.

A new lichenicolous species of Carbonea (Ascomycota, Lecanoraceae) from northern Sweden

Phytotaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 522 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-230
Author(s):  
MÅNS SVENSSON ◽  
MARTIN WESTBERG
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
New Species ◽  
Host Specificity ◽  
Species Delimitation ◽  
Northern Sweden ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
The Common

Carbonea is a widely distributed genus of lecideoid fungi, including both lichenized and non-lichenized, often parasitic species. We describe the new, non-lichenized species Carbonea tephromelae, based on material collected in the Swedish part of the Scandes. The new species is characterized by a colourless hypothecium, broadly ellipsoid to globose ascospores, and by growing on the thallus of the common saxicolous lichen Tephromela atra. It is similar to the likewise lichenicolous species C. supersparsa and C. vitellinaria, but is clearly separated from these species by anatomy and in a phylogenetic analysis based on four markers (mrSSU, ITS, RPB1, RPB2). Carbonea tephromelae is apparently specific to T. atra, but the use of host specificity as a character for species delimitation in lichenicolous species of Carbonea needs further evaluation.

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