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Brood parasitism increases provisioning rate, and reduces offspring recruitment and adult return rates, in a cowbird host

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Abstract

Interspecific brood parasitism in birds presents a special problem for the host because the parasitic offspring exploit their foster parents, causing them to invest more energy in their current reproductive effort. Nestling brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) are a burden to relatively small hosts and may reduce fledgling quality and adult survival. We documented food-provisioning rates of one small host, the prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea), at broods that were similar in age (containing nestlings 8–9 days old), but that varied in composition (number of warbler and cowbird nestlings) and mass, and measured the effect of brood parasitism on offspring recruitment and adult returns in the host. The rate of food provisioning increased with brood mass, and males and females contributed equally to feeding nestlings. Controlling for brood mass, the provisioning rate was higher for nests with cowbirds than those without. Recruitment of warbler fledglings from unparasitized nests was 1.6 and 3.7 times higher than that of fledglings from nests containing one or two cowbirds, respectively. Returns of double-brooded adult male and female warblers decreased with an increase in the number of cowbirds raised, but the decrease was more pronounced in males. Reduced returns of warbler adults and recruitment of warbler fledglings with increased cowbird parasitism was likely a result of reduced survival. Cowbird parasitism increased the warblers’ investment in current reproductive effort, while exerting additional costs to current reproduction and residual reproductive value. Our study provides the strongest evidence to date for negative effects of cowbird parasitism on recruitment of host fledglings and survival of host adults.

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Acknowledgments

The tremendous efforts of many dedicated field assistants greatly improved this research, especially those of E. Whetsell, A. Corso, B. Holliday, C. Kelly, J. Stahl, L. Rodman, B. Franklin, R. Schmitz, A. Spencer, M. Mckim-Louder, and D. Robertson. We also thank the members of the Cache River Joint Venture (the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources) for their assistance with setting up the field research in southern Illinois. The Illinois Natural History Survey, in particular the staff of the Center for Wildlife and Plant Ecology, provided critical logistic support. Scott Robinson provided valuable insights and ideas that greatly improved the research. Comments from two anonymous reviewers strengthened the manuscript. The research presented here was described in Animal Research Protocol No. N6C107/7093 approved on 8 April 1997 and No. N8C046 approved on 2 February 1998 by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Financial support for this work was provided by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (INT 1448-0003-95-1007), The Nature Conservancy, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Preservation Fund, The National Fish and Wildlife Fund, the University of Illinois (Dissertation Completion Fellowship and Travel Grant), the North American Bluebird Society, the Champaign County and Decatur Audubon Societies, and Sigma Xi. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the agencies and organizations that supported the research.

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Correspondence to Jeffrey P. Hoover.

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Communicated by Mark Chappell

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Hoover, J.P., Reetz, M.J. Brood parasitism increases provisioning rate, and reduces offspring recruitment and adult return rates, in a cowbird host. Oecologia 149, 165–173 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-006-0424-1

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