Male House Wrens provide more parental provisioning to nests with a brighter artificial egg

Walters, Lindsey A.; Olszewski, Nathan; Sobol, Kevin

doi:10.1676/13-221.1

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In support of the SSEC, several studies have found evidence for a positive effect of egg coloration on male care (Moreno et al, 2006b;Sanz and García-Navas, 2009;Soler et al, 2005 but see Krist and Grim, 2007;Stoddard et al, 2012). It is noteworthy that experimental manipulation of egg coloration had a significant positive effect on male but not female provisioning rates in spotless starlings (Soler et al, 2008), American robins (Turdus migratorius) (English and Montgomerie, 2011) and house wrens (Walters et al, 2014). Given that egg coloration seems to influence male care only, females could use this mechanism as a means for manipulating male care.…”

Section: Egg Colorationmentioning

confidence: 95%

Maternal effects as a mechanism for manipulating male care and resolving sexual conflict over care

Paquet

Smiseth

2015

BEHECO

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Understanding how sexual conflict influences male and female parental decisions is a longstanding problem in behavioral ecology. Until now, most research on sexual conflict over parental care has focused on behavioral mechanisms mediating the resolution of this conflict through negotiation between parents. Here, we review evidence suggesting that maternal effects that alter offspring phenotypes may provide females with a mechanism for manipulating male care. We show that empirical studies on the role of maternal androgens in birds with biparental care provide no support for female manipulation of male care. However, we argue that it would be premature to conclude that maternal androgens play no role in female manipulation of male care given methodological problems in previous work. We then identify a number of additional mechanisms by which females may manipulate male care, including egg components other than androgens, egg size and egg coloration. We show that there is good evidence that egg coloration affects male care, suggesting that this mechanism warrants further research. We also highlight that current evidence is derived from studies using experimental design that target specific candidate mechanisms, such as maternal androgens. Given the multitude of candidate mechanisms, we discuss an alternative approach based on targeting ecologically relevant pre-natal conditions, such as food availability, and monitoring subsequent effects on candidate mechanisms, offspring phenotypes, and male and female care. Finally, we argue that it is timely to extend this work beyond birds with biparental care to include other taxa and species with uniparental male care and cooperative breeding.

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Section: Egg Colorationmentioning

confidence: 95%

Maternal effects as a mechanism for manipulating male care and resolving sexual conflict over care

Paquet

Smiseth

2015

BEHECO

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“…Accordingly, many studies report that brightly coloured, and thus more pigmented, eggs are laid by higher quality females (Soler et al 2005 ; Moreno et al 2006 ; Siefferman et al 2006 ; Martínez-de la Puente et al 2007 ; Walters and Getty 2010 ; Hargitai et al 2016 ; but see Hanley et al 2015 ; Dehnhard et al 2015 ). Furthermore, females laying more colourful eggs are often associated with increased levels of care by their male reproductive partners (Moreno et al 2005 ; English and Montgomerie 2011 ; Walters et al 2014 ; but see Krist and Grim 2007 ; Fronstin et al 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plumage and eggshell colouration covary with the level of sex-specific parental contributions to nest building in birds

Nagy,

Hauber,

Löki

et al. 2024

Sci Nat

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Interspecific variation in sex-specific contributions to prenatal parental care, including avian nest building, is becoming increasingly better understood as we amass more information on more species. We examined whether sex-specific nest building contributions covary with the colouration of parents and their eggs in 521 species of Western Palearctic birds. Having colourful plumage and laying colourful eggs are costly because of the deposition of pigments in feathers and eggs and/or forming costly nanostructural substrates in feathers, and so it might be expected that those costs covary with the costs of nest building at the level of individuals and/or across species to produce of a suite of codivergent traits. Using a phylogenetically informed approach, we tested the hypothesis that species in which females alone invest energy building nests exhibit less sexual plumage dichromatism. However, we found comparative support for the opposite of this prediction. We then tested that species in which females alone build nests lay more colourful, and costlier, eggs because the dual costs of building nests and laying colourful eggs can only be borne by higher quality individuals. As expected, we found that species in which females build nests alone or together with males are more likely to lay colourfully pigmented eggs relative to species in which only males build nests. Finally, stochastic character mapping provided evidence of the repeated evolution of female-only nest building. Interspecific sex differences in plumage colouration therefore covary in a complex manner with female pre- (nest building) and post-copulatory (egg production) investment in reproduction.

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“…Sanz and García-Navas (2009) found a higher rate of male provisioning to nestlings hatching from more heavily pigmented eggs, but their study design did not account for the effect of nestling quality. Walters et al (2014) found that male house wrens provisioned more to nests in which an artificial white egg had been added than to nests in which an artificial brown egg had been added. However, this experiment also does not take into account the potential effect of confounding factors such as female or nestling quality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, Poláček et al (2017) found that not only was clutch pigmentation positively correlated to eggshell protoporphyrin content, but also to male provisioning in tree sparrows (Passer montanus). Walters et al (2014) found an opposite effect in house wrens, with males increasing their provisioning of nestlings in nests to which the authors had earlier added an artificially light egg. With results of studies on the effect of eggshell protoporphyrin pigmentation on male provisioning limited and conflicting, there is clearly a pressing need for further investigation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Connecting the dots: exploring the relationship between avian eggshell pigmentation and paternal provisioning effort

Hodges¹

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for their constant guidance and support throughout this process, as well as my unofficial advisor, Nate Mortimer. I owe a huge heap of thanks to all wren crew members, in particular Rachael DiSciullo, Dylan Poorboy, and Beth Weber, for their contributions to data collection. In addition, I want to thank the biology department faculty and graduate students for their instruction, assistance, and comradery. I would also like to express gratitude to the ParkLands Foundation (Merwin Preserve), the Illinois Great Rivers Conference of the United Methodist Church, and the Sears and Butler families for the use of their properties. Finally, a shout-out to the wrens, who played a reluctant but essential role in my research. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Ornithological Society, Sigma Xi

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Male House Wrens provide more parental provisioning to nests with a brighter artificial egg

Cited by 9 publications

References 41 publications

Maternal effects as a mechanism for manipulating male care and resolving sexual conflict over care

Maternal effects as a mechanism for manipulating male care and resolving sexual conflict over care

Plumage and eggshell colouration covary with the level of sex-specific parental contributions to nest building in birds

Connecting the dots: exploring the relationship between avian eggshell pigmentation and paternal provisioning effort

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