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Begging in Nestling Birds

  • Chapter
Current Ornithology

Part of the book series: Current Ornithology ((CUOR,volume 16))

Abstract

Interest in nestling begging arises from the theoretical conflict over resource allocation between parents and their offspring. This conflict was first proposed by Trivers (1974), who suggested that an individual offspring is selected to obtain a greater proportion of resources than the parent is selected to give. That is, a parent is equally related to each offspring in each brood by half, whereas a nestling is more highly related to itself (i.e., 1.00) than to its present or future siblings (i.e., 0.50-0.25, on average). Conflict between parent and offspring can be expressed throughout the period of parental care from conception through independence, during which offspring are selected to elicit parental investment for a period exceeding the optimum for the parent. Trivers (1974) suggested an offspring is able to “compete” effectively with its parent through psychological manipulation. By begging until its needs have been met, the offspring indicates its degree of distress (for example, its requirement for food) and thereby encourages a higher level of parental investment. In such a system, any offspring signaling a “dishonest” (excessive) level of need would benefit from receiving a level of parental

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, UK

    Amber E. Budden & Jonathan Wright

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  1. Amber E. Budden
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  2. Jonathan Wright
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    Val Nolan Jr.

  2. Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, USA

    Charles F. Thompson

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Budden, A.E., Wright, J. (2001). Begging in Nestling Birds. In: Nolan, V., Thompson, C.F. (eds) Current Ornithology. Current Ornithology, vol 16. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1211-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1211-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5443-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-1211-0

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