Abstract
Some avian brood parasitic nestlings are highly virulent, destroying all host eggs or nestmates, while others accept growing up together with host nestmates. The traditional idea was that all brood parasitic nestlings would benefit from being alone in the host nest. Thus, why do nestlings of some brood parasitic species accept the company of host offspring in the nest? The trade-off hypothesis suggests that brood parasites must balance the costs and benefits of killing host young because of two major potential costs: risk of nest desertion and loss of begging assistance. Here, we test this hypothesis in a non-evictor cuckoo species, the great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius and its main host, the magpie Pica pica, by manipulating brood size (1–3 nestlings) and brood composition (only cuckoo, only magpie or mixed) during three consecutive breeding seasons. None of the broods were abandoned by host parents, and cuckoo nestlings alone in the nest tended to grow faster (i.e. wing length). Thus, none of the predictions of the two potential costs on which the trade-off hypothesis is based apply to the great spotted cuckoo–magpie system. Our experimental study could not directly test why chick killing has not evolved in great spotted cuckoos, but the results point in the direction of several possibilities. We suggest that chick killing in great spotted cuckoos may not be adaptive mainly because another, less costly strategy (i.e. outcompeting host nestmates for food), is efficient for successful parasitism of magpie hosts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alderson GW, Gibbs HL, Sealy SG (1999) Determining the reproductive behaviour of individual brown-headed cowbirds using microsatellite DNA markers. Anim Behav 58:895–905
Anderson MG, Moskát C, Bán M, Grim T, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009) Egg eviction imposes a recoverable cost of virulence in chicks of a brood parasite. PLoS One 4:e7725
Aragón S, Møller AP, Soler JJ, Soler M (1999) Molecular phylogeny of cuckoos supports a polyphyletic origin of brood parasitism. J Evol Biol 12:495–506
Broom M, Ruxton GD, Kilner RM (2008) Host life-history strategies and the evolution of chick-killing by brood parasitic offspring. Behav Ecol 19:22–34
Davies NB (2000) Cuckoos, cowbirds and other cheats. T & AD Poyser, London
Fraga RM (1998) Interactions of the parasitic screaming and shiny cowbirds (Molothrus rufoaxillaris and M. bonariensis) with a shared host, the bay-winged cowbird (M. badius). In: Rothstein SI, Robinson SK (eds) Parasitic birds and their hosts: studies in coevolution. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 173–193
Grim T (2006a) Cuckoo growth performance in parasitized and unused hosts: not only host size matters. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 60:716–723
Grim T (2006b) Low virulence of brood parasitic chicks: adaptation or constraint? Ornithol Sci 5:237–242
Grim T, Rutila J, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009a) Experimentally constrained virulence is costly for common cuckoo chicks. Ethology 115:14–22
Grim T, Rutila J, Cassey P, Hauber ME (2009b) The cost of virulence: an experimental study of egg eviction by brood parasitic chicks. Behav Ecol 20:1138–1146
Grim T, Samas P, Moskát C, Kleven O, Honza M, Moksnes A, Røskaft E, Stokke BG (2011) Constraints on host choice: why do parasitic birds rarely exploit some common potential hosts? J Anim Ecol 80:508–518
Hauber ME (2003) Hatching asynchrony, nestling competition and the costs of interspecific brood parasitism. Behav Ecol 14:227–235
Hauber ME, Moskát C (2008) Shared parental care is costly for nestlings of common cuckoos and their great reed warbler hosts. Behav Ecol 19:79–86
Honza M, Vošlajerová K, Moskát C (2007) Eviction behaviour of the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus chicks. J Avian Biol 38:385–389
Husby M (1986) On the adaptive value of brood reduction in birds: experiments with the magpie (Pica pica). J Anim Ecol 55:75–83
Kenward MG, Roger JH (1997) Small sample inference for fixed effects from restricted maximum likelihood. Biometrics 53:983–997
Kilner RM (2003) How selfish is a cowbird nestling? Anim Behav 66:569–576
Kilner RM (2005) The evolution of virulence in brood parasites. Ornithol Sci 4:55–64
Kilner RM (2006) Response to Grim: further costs of virulence for brood parasitic young. Ornithol Sci 5:243–247
Kilner RM, Madden JR, Hauber ME (2004) Brood parasitic cowbirds use host young to procure food. Science 305:877–879
Krüger O, Davies NB (2004) The evolution of egg size in the brood parasitic cuckoos. Behav Ecol 15:210–218
Langmore NE, Hunt S, Kilner RM (2003) Escalation of a co-evolutionary arms race through host rejection of brood parasitic young. Nature 422:157–160
Lichtenstein G (2001) Low success of shiny cowbird chicks parasitizing rufous-bellied thrushes: chick–chick competition or parental discrimination? Anim Behav 61:401–413
Martínez JG, Burke T, Dawson D, Soler JJ, Soler M, Møller AP (1998) Microsatellite typing reveals mating patterns in the brood parasitic great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius). Mol Ecol 7:289–297
Martín-Gálvez D, Soler M, Soler JJ, Martín-Vivaldi M, Palomino JJ (2005) Food acquisition by common cuckoo chicks in rufous bush robin nests and the advantage of eviction behaviour. Anim Behav 70:1313–1321
Mock DW, Parker GA (1986) Advantages and disadvantages of egret and heron brood reduction. Evolution 40:459–470
Moreno-Rueda G, Soler M, Soler JJ, Martínez JG, Pérez-Contreras T (2007) Rules of food allocation between nestlings of the black-billed magpie Pica pica, a species showing brood reduction. Ardeola 54:15–25
Moskát C, Barta Z, Hauber ME, Honza M (2006) High synchrony of egg laying in common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) and their great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) hosts. Ethol Ecol Evol 18:159–167
Payne RB, Woods JL, Payne LL (2001) Parental care in estrildid finches: experimental tests of a model of Vidua brood parasitism. Anim Behav 62:473–483
Råberg L, Graham AL, Read AF (2009) Decomposing health: tolerance and resistance to parasites in animals. Philos T Roy Soc B 364:37–49
Rausher MD (2001) Co-evolution and plant resistance to natural enemies. Nature 411:857–864
Rivers JW (2007) Nestmate size, but not short-term need, influences the begging behavior of a generalist brood parasite. Behav Ecol 18:222–230
Rivers JW, Loughin TM, Rothstein SI (2010) Brown-headed cowbird nestlings influence nestmate begging, but not parental feeding, in hosts of three distinct sizes. Anim Behav 79:107–116
Rothstein SI (1990) A model system for coevolution: avian brood parasitism. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 21:481–508
Schuetz JG (2005) Low survival of parasite chicks may result from their imperfect adaptation to hosts rather than expression of defenses against parasitism. Evolution 59:2017–2024
Sibley CG, Ahlquist JE (1990) Phylogeny and classification of birds. Yale University Press, London
Soler M (1990) Relationships between the great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius and its corvid hosts in a recently colonized area. Ornis Scand 21:212–223
Soler M (2001) Begging behaviour of nestlings and food delivery by parents: the importance of breeding strategy. Acta Ethol 4:59–63
Soler M (2002) Breeding strategy and begging intensity: influences on food delivery by parents and host selection by parasitic cuckoos. In: Wright J, Leonard ML (eds) The evolution of begging. Competition, cooperation and communication. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 413–427
Soler M, Soler JJ (1991) Growth and development of great spotted cuckoos and their magpie host. Condor 93:49–54
Soler JJ, Soler M (2000) Brood-parasite interactions between great spotted cuckoos and magpies: a model system for studying coevolutionary relationships. Oecologia 125:309–320
Soler M, de Neve L (2012) Great spotted cuckoo nestlings but not magpie nestlings starve in experimental age-matched broods. Ethology 118:1036–1044
Soler M, Martínez JG, Soler JJ (1996) Effects of brood parasitism by the great spotted cuckoo on the breeding success of the magpie host: an experimental study. Ardeola 43:87–96
Soler M, Soler JJ, Martínez JG (1998) Duration of sympatry and coevolution between the great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius and its primary host, the magpie Pica pica. In: Rothstein SI, Robinson SK (eds) Parasitic birds and their hosts: studies in coevolution. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 113–118
Soler M, Soler JJ, Pérez-Contreras T, Martínez JG (2001) Differential reproductive success of great spotted cuckoos Clamator glandarius parasitising magpies Pica pica and carrion crows Corvus corone: the importance of parasitism costs and host defences. Avian Sci 1:1–9
Sorenson MD, Payne RB (2002) Molecular genetic perspectives on avian brood parasitism. Integr Comp Biol 42:388–400
Spottiswoode CN, Koorevaar J (2012) A stab in the dark: chick killing by brood parasitic honeyguides. Biol Lett 8:241–244
Svensson EI, Råberg L (2010) Resistance and tolerance in animal enemy-victim coevolution. Trends Ecol Evol 25:267–274
Verboven N, Tinbergen JM (2002) Nest desertion: a trade-off between current and future reproduction. Anim Behav 63:951–958
Acknowledgments
We thank Francisco Espinosa and Francisco Ferri for their help with field work and Tomas Grim, Juan J. Soler, the associate editor and two anonymous referees for constructive comments on previous versions that greatly improved the quality of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia/FEDER (research project CGL2007-61940/BOS, postdoctoral research grant to LDN (Programme “Juan de la Cierva”)).
Ethical standards
Research has been conducted according to relevant Spanish national (Real Decreto 1201/2005, de 10 de Octubre) and regional (permissions provided yearly by la Consejería de Medio Ambiente de la Junta de Andalucía) guidelines.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by M. Leonard
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Soler, M., de Neve, L. Brood mate eviction or brood mate acceptance by brood parasitic nestlings? An experimental study with the non-evictor great spotted cuckoo and its magpie host. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67, 601–607 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1479-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1479-8