Abstract
Obligate avian brood parasites lay their eggs in nests of other species (hosts), which raise parasitic young. Parasitic nestlings are likely to influence host’s parental behaviours as they typically beg for food more vigorously than young host for a given hunger level. However, few studies have tested this idea, with conflicting results. These prior studies were largely limited to biparental hosts, but little is known about the effect of brood parasitism on parental behaviours in hosts that breed cooperatively. We followed a multimodel approach to examine the effect of brood parasitism on nest provisioning and helper recruitment in the baywing (Agelaioides badius), a cooperative breeder parasitised by screaming (Molothrus rufoaxillaris) and shiny (Molothrus bonariensis) cowbirds. Multimodel inference results indicated that feeding visits increased with nestling age, cooperative group size and number of cowbird nestlings in the brood. Brood size had little influence on feeding visits, which further suggests that baywings adjusted their provisioning effort in response to cowbird parasitism. In addition, nests parasitised artificially with shiny cowbird eggs or hatchlings recruited more helpers than unmanipulated nests having only host or screaming cowbird young. Our results provide novel evidence that brood parasitism and cooperative breeding interact in determining the levels of nest provisioning.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Burnham KP, Anderson DR (1998) Model selection and inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Springer, New York
Canestrari D, Marcos JM, Baglione V (2007) Costs of chick provisioning in cooperatively breeding crows: an experimental study. Anim Behav 73:347–357. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.04.013
Canestrari D, Marcos JM, Baglione V (2008) Reproductive success increases with group size in cooperative carrion crows, Corvus corone corone. Anim Behav 75:403–416. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.05.005
Canestrari D, Marcos JM, Baglione V (2009) Cooperative breeding in carrion crows reduces the rate of brood parasitism by great spotted cuckoos. Anim Behav 77:1337–1344. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.02.009
Davies NB (2000) Cuckoos, cowbirds and other cheats. T & AD Poyser, London
Davies NB, Kilner RM, Noble DG (1998) Nestling cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, exploit hosts with begging calls that mimic a brood. Proc R Soc B 265:673–678. doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0346
De Mársico MC, Reboreda JC (2008) Egg-laying behavior in screaming cowbirds: why does a specialist brood parasite waste so many eggs? Condor 110:143–153
De Mársico MC, Mahler B, Reboreda JC (2010) Reproductive success and nestling growth of the baywing parasitized by screaming and shiny cowbirds. Wilson J Ornithol 122:417–431. doi:10.1676/09-140.1
Dearborn DC (1998) Begging behaviour and food acquisition by brown-headed cowbird nestlings. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 43:259–270. doi:10.1007/s002650050490
Dearborn DC, Anders AD, Thompson FR, Faaborg J (1998) Effects of cowbird parasitism on parental provisioning and nestling food acquisition and growth. Condor 100:326–334
Fraga RM (1979) Differences between nestlings and fledglings of screaming and bay-winged cowbirds. Wilson Bull 91:151–154
Fraga RM (1988) Nests sites and breeding success of bay-winged cowbirds (Molothrus badius). J Ornitol 129:175–183
Fraga RM (1991) The social system of a communal breeder, the bay-winged cowbird Molothrus badius. Ethology 89:195–210
Glassey B, Forbes S (2003) Why brown-headed cowbirds do not influence red-winged blackbird parent behaviour. Anim Behav 65:1235–1246. doi:10.1006/anbe.2003.2168
Grim T, Honza M (2001) Does supernormal stimulus influence parental behaviour of the cuckoo’s host? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 49:322–329. doi:10.1007/s002650000295
Hatchwell BJ (1999) Investment strategies of breeders in avian cooperative breeding systems. Am Nat 154:205–219
Hatchwell BJ, Russell AF, McColl ADC, Ross DJ, Fowlie MK, McGowan A (2004) Helpers increase long-term but not short-term productivity in cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits. Behav Ecol 15:1–10. doi:10.1093/beheco/arg091
Hauber ME, Montenegro K (2002) What are the costs of raising a brood parasite? Comparing host parental care at parasitized and non-parasitized broods. Etología 10:1–9
Heinsohn RG (2004) Parental care, load-lightening and costs. In: Koenig W, Dickinson J (eds) Ecology and evolution of cooperative breeding in birds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 67–80
Heinsohn RG, Cockburn A, Cunningham RB (1988) Foraging, delayed maturation, and advantages of cooperative breeding in white-winged choughs, Corcorax melanorhamphos. Ethology 77:177–186
Hoover JP, Reetz MJ (2006) Brood parasitism increases provisioning rate, and reduces offspring recruitment and adult return rates, in a cowbird host. Oecologia 149:165–173. doi:10.1007/s00442-006-0424-1
Kingma SA, Hall ML, Arriero E, Peters A (2010) Multiple benefits of cooperative breeding in purple-crowned fairy-wrens: a consequence of fidelity? J Anim Ecol 79:757–768. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01697.x
Langmore NE, Kilner RM (2007) Breeding site and host selection by Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoos, Chalcites basalis. Anim Behav 74:995–1004. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.02.028
Lichtenstein G (2001) Selfish begging by screaming cowbird, a mimetic brood parasite of the bay-winged cowbird. Anim Behav 61:1151–1158. doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1688
Lichtenstein G, Dearborn DC (2004) Begging and short-term need in cowbird nestlings: how different are brood parasites. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56:352–359
Lichtenstein G, Sealy SG (1998) Nestling competition, rather than supernormal stimulus, explains the success of parasitic brown-headed cowbird chicks in yellow warbler nests. Proc R Soc B 265:249–254. doi:10.1098/rspb.1998.0289
Lorenzana JC, Sealy SG (1999) A meta-analysis of the impact of parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds on its hosts. Stud Avian Biol 18:241–253
MacGregor NA, Cockburn A (2002) Sex differences in parental response to begging nestlings in superb fairy-wrens. Anim Behav 63:923–932. doi:10.1006/anbe.2001.1991
McDonald PG, Kazem AJN, Wright J (2009) Cooperative provisioning dynamics: fathers and unrelated helpers show similar responses to manipulations of begging. Anim Behav 77:369–376. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.10.009
Ortega C (1998) Cowbirds and other brood parasites. University of Arizona Press, Tucson
Pagnucco K, Zanette L, Clinchy M, Leonard ML (2008) Sheep in wolf’s clothing: host nestling vocalizations resemble their cowbird competitor’s. Proc R Soc B 275:1061–1065. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1706
Poiani A, Elgar MA (1994) Cooperative breeding in the Australian avifauna and brood parasitism by cuckoos (Cuculidae). Anim Behav 47:697–706. doi:10.1006/anbe.1994.1094
R Development Core Team (2008) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna
Raihani NJ, Nelson-Flower MJ, Moyes K, Browning LE, Ridley AL (2010) Synchronous provisioning increases brood survival in cooperatively breeding pied babblers. J Anim Ecol 79:44–52. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2656.2009.01606.x
Reyer H-U (1980) Flexible helper structure as an ecological adaptation in the pied kingfisher (Ceryle rudis rudis L.). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 6:219–227. doi:10.1007/BF00569203
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. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.10.009
Rothstein SI (1990) A model system for coevolution: avian brood parasitism. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 21:481–508
SAS Institue (1998) StatView user’s guide. Version 5.0. SAS Institute, Cary
Shen S-F, Chen H-C, Vehrencamp SL, Yuan H-W (2010) Group provisioning limits sharing conflict among nestlings in joint-nesting Taiwan yuhinas. Biol Lett 6:318–321. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0909
Symonds MRE, Moussalli A (2011) A brief guide to model selection, multimodel inference and model averaging in behavioural ecology using Akaike’s information criterion. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65:13–21. doi:10.1007/s00265-010-1037-6
Valencia J, de la Cruz C, González B (2003) Flexible helping behaviour in the azure-winged magpie. Ethology 109:545–558. doi:10.1046/j.1439-0310.2003.00896.x
Wright J (1998) Helpers-at-the-nest have the same provisioning rule as parents: experimental evidence from play-backs of chick begging. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 42:423–429. doi:10.1007/s002650050456
Wright J, Dingemanse NJ (1999) Parents and helpers compensate for experimental changes in the provisioning effort of others in the Arabian babbler. Anim Behav 58:345–350. doi:10.1006/anbe.1999.1152
Acknowledgments
We thank Fundación Elsa Shaw de Pearson for allowing us to conduct this study at “Reserva El Destino”. We also thank Mark Hauber and Myriam Mermoz for helpful comments on previous draft. We are grateful to Scott Forbes and an anonymous reviewer, whose comments and suggestions allowed us to greatly improve the manuscript. CAU was supported by a scholarship of the University of Buenos Aires, MCDM was supported by a fellowship from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and MS and JCR are research fellows of CONICET. This work was supported by research grants of Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica and University of Buenos Aires.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by J. Lindström
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ursino, C.A., De Mársico, M.C., Sued, M. et al. Brood parasitism disproportionately increases nest provisioning and helper recruitment in a cooperatively breeding bird. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 2279–2286 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1238-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1238-7