Egg‐Inspection Frequency Predicts Egg Recognition but Not Ejection in a Cuckoo Host [PDF]
Ecology and EvolutionOne of the most effective strategies for avian hosts to defend against brood parasitism is to reject the parasitic egg from the focal nest. However, substantial inter‐individual variability in egg‐rejection behavior remains unexplained.
Guobin Zheng +7 more
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How Do Oriental Reed Warblers Recognize Cuckoo Eggs? [PDF]
Ecology and EvolutionOriental reed warblers (Acrocephalus orientalis) are favorite hosts of common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus). However, the cognitive basis and underlying mechanisms of the host egg discrimination behavior remain not well understood.
Hanlin Yan, Longwu Wang, Wei Liang
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Visual complexity of egg patterns predicts egg rejection according to Weber's law. [PDF]
Proc Biol Sci, 2022 Visual complexity is ubiquitous in nature. Drivers of complexity include selection in coevolutionary arms races between antagonists. However, the causes and consequences of biological complexity and its perception are largely understudied, partly because complexity is difficult to quantify.
Dixit T +5 more
europepmc +8 more sources
Egg rejection based on egg size recognition as a specific strategy against parasitic cuckoos. [PDF]
Curr Zool, 2023 Abstract In the coevolutionary interactions between avian brood parasites and their hosts, egg recognition based on color and/or pattern is a common and effective defense to counter parasitism. However, for egg recognition based on size, only a few studies have found affirmative results, and they do not provide unambiguous evidence that ...
Ye P +6 more
europepmc +3 more sources
Egg Spots Are Important Cues for Egg Recognition in Barn Swallows [PDF]
Ecology and EvolutionEgg recognition is one of the most common strategies utilized by host birds to combat brood parasitism. Eggshell surface features (e.g., eggshell color and spots) are important cues for host egg recognition, enabling avian hosts to recognize and reject ...
Kui Yan +3 more
doaj +2 more sources
Categorical identity signatures can reduce host error rates during brood parasitism. [PDF]
PLoS BiologyBiological recognition is often modeled as involving discrimination of continuously-distributed (and continuously-perceived) traits according to decision thresholds. However, traits such as animal signals can be categorically distributed.
Tanmay Dixit +7 more
doaj +2 more sources
Egg retrieval versus egg rejection in cuckoo hosts. [PDF]
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 2019 Before complex nests evolved, birds laid eggs on the ground, and egg retrieval evolved as an adaptation against accidental displacement of eggs outside the nest. Therefore, egg retrieval is an ancient, and likely ancestral, widespread behaviour in birds. However, it has received little attention in studies of avian brood parasitism,
Yang C, Liang W, Møller AP.
europepmc +4 more sources
Host learning selects for the coevolution of greater egg mimicry and narrower antiparasitic egg-rejection thresholds. [PDF]
Evol Lett, 2023 Abstract Egg rejection is an effective and widespread antiparasitic defense to eliminate foreign eggs from the nests of hosts of brood parasitic birds. Several lines of observational and critical experimental evidence support a role for learning by hosts in the recognition of parasitic versus own eggs; specifically, individual hosts that
Xu K +6 more
europepmc +3 more sources
Endocrine regulation of egg rejection in an avian brood parasite host. [PDF]
Biol Lett, 2020 Abstract Parasite–host coevolution can lead to novel behavioural adaptations in hosts to resist parasitism. In avian obligate brood parasite and host systems, many host species have evolved diverse cognitive and behavioural traits to recognize and reject parasitic eggs.
Abolins-Abols M, Hauber ME.
europepmc +7 more sources
The limits of egg recognition: testing acceptance thresholds of American robins in response to decreasingly egg-shaped objects in the nest [PDF]
Royal Society Open Science, 2021 Some hosts of avian brood parasites reduce or eliminate the costs of parasitism by removing foreign eggs from the nest (rejecter hosts). In turn, even acceptor hosts typically remove most non-egg-shaped objects from the nest, including broken shells ...
Mark E. Hauber +4 more
doaj +1 more source