Should I stay or should I go: the effect of avian brood parasitism on host fledging dynamics

Scharf, Hannah M.; Hauber, Márk E.; Stenstrom, K. H.; Schelsky, Wendy M.

doi:10.1007/s00265-022-03168-8

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…While cuckoo nestlings evict host offspring from nests, cowbird offspring share the nest with the host offspring ( Davies 2000 ), meaning that host nestlings raised in nests with brood parasitic nestlings should receive less parentally provided food, and therefore be disadvantaged when compared to nestlings raised in the absence of brood parasitic nestlings because they are smaller and lighter at pre-fledging. Support for that idea comes from studies showing that sharing the nest with brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds ( Molothrus ater ) caused prothonotary warbler ( Protonotaria citrea ) nestlings to be smaller than nestlings raised in nests without cowbirds ( Scharf et al 2022 ). Further, the nestlings of nine different host species were smaller and thus disadvantaged when compared to host nestlings raised without cowbird nestlings ( Jones et al 2023 ).…”

Section: Variation Between Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Born without a Silver Spoon: A Review of the Causes and Consequences of Adversity during Early Life

Mainwaring

Tobalske

Hartley

2023

Integrative and Comparative Biology

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A huge amount of research attention has focused on the evolution of life histories but most research focuses on dominant individuals that acquire a disproportionate level of reproductive success, whilst the life histories and reproductive tactics of subordinate individuals has received less attention. Here, we review the links between early life adversity and performance during adulthood in birds, and highlight instances in which subordinate individuals out-perform dominant conspecifics. Subordinate individuals are those from broods raised under high risk of predation, with low availability of food and/or with many parasites. Meanwhile, the broods of many species hatch or are born asynchronously and mitigation of the asynchrony is generally lacking from variation in maternal effects such as egg size and hormone deposition or genetic effects such as offspring sex or parentage. Subordinate individuals employ patterns of differential growth to attempt to mitigate the adversity they experience during early life, yet they overwhelmingly fail to overcome their initial handicap. In terms of surviving through to adulthood, subordinate individuals employ other “suboptimal” tactics, such as adaptively timing foraging behaviours to avoid dominant individuals. During adulthood, meanwhile, subordinate individuals rely on “suboptimal” tactics, such as adaptive dispersal behaviours and competing for partners at optimal times, because they represent the best options available to them to acquire copulations whenever possible. We conclude that there is a gap in knowledge for direct links between early life adversity and subordination during adulthood, meaning that further research should test for links. There are instances, however, where subordinate individuals employ “suboptimal” tactics that allow them to outperform dominant conspecifics during adulthood.

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Section: Variation Between Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Born without a Silver Spoon: A Review of the Causes and Consequences of Adversity during Early Life

Mainwaring

Tobalske

Hartley

2023

Integrative and Comparative Biology

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“…Although many of the negative fitness effects of brood parasitism upon hosts are well documented (e.g., Brook & Davies, 1989; Kilner, 2003; Lorenzana & Sealy, 1999; Payne et al, 2001), few studies have examined the impacts of nest‐sharing parasitism on the entirety of host ontogeny (i.e., from when an egg is laid until independence). More specifically, there remains a paucity of studies that have examined the impact of brood parasitism on the post‐fledging development, physiology, behavior, and survival of host offspring (De Mársico et al, 2017; Scharf et al, 2022); that is, whether brood parasitism imposes subsequent costs on host young that survive to fledging in the presence of a parasitic nestmate (Hauber & Montenegro, 2002). Indeed, the few studies that have examined the impacts of brood parasitism beyond the nesting stage have largely been limited to estimates of host offspring recruitment (e.g., Hoover & Reetz, 2006; McKim‐Louder et al, 2013; Sedgewick & Iko, 1999; Smith, 1981; but see Jenkins & Faaborg, 2016; Peterson et al, 2012; Vitz & Rodewald, 2011), in which mortality and emigration are often confounded (summarized in Cooper et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogenetic effects of brood parasitism by the Brown‐headed Cowbird on host offspring

Jones

Giovanni

Hauber

et al. 2023

Ecology

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Nest‐sharer avian brood parasites do not evict or otherwise kill host chicks, but instead inflict a range of negative effects on their nestmates that are mediated by interactions between the parasite and host life history traits. Although many of the negative fitness effects of avian brood parasitism are well documented across diverse host species, there remains a paucity of studies that have examined the impacts of parasitism across the entirety of host ontogeny (i.e., from when an egg is laid until independence). More specifically, few studies have examined the impact of brood parasitism on the pre‐ and post‐fledging development, physiology, behavior, and survival of host offspring. To help fill this knowledge gap, we assessed the effects of brood parasitism by Brown‐headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) across the ontogeny (incubation, nestling, and post‐fledging period) of nine sympatrically breeding host species in central Illinois, USA; due to sample sizes, impacts on the post‐fledging period were only examined in two of the nine species. Specifically, we examined the impact of brood parasitism on ontogenetic markers including the embryonic heart rate, hatching rate, nestling period length, nest survival, and offspring growth and development. Additionally, in species in which we found negative impacts of cowbird parasitism on host nestmate ontogeny, we examined whether the difference in adult size between parasites and their hosts and their hatching asynchrony positively predicted variation in host costs across these focal taxa. We found that costs of cowbird parasitism were most severe during early nesting stages (reduction in the host clutch or brood size) and were predicted negatively by host size and positively by incubation length. In contrast, we only found limited costs of cowbird parasitism on other stages of host ontogeny; critically, post‐fledging survival did not differ between host offspring that fledged alongside cowbirds and those that did not. Our findings (i) highlight the direct costs of cowbird parasitism on host fitness, (ii) provide evidence for when (the stage) those costs are manifested, and (iii) may help to explain why many anti‐cowbird defenses of hosts have evolved for protection from parasitism during the laying and incubation stages.

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Avian Reproduction: Post-hatching Parental Care and Brood Parasitism

Ritchison

2023

Fascinating Life Sciences

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Should I stay or should I go: the effect of avian brood parasitism on host fledging dynamics

Cited by 7 publications

References 60 publications

Born without a Silver Spoon: A Review of the Causes and Consequences of Adversity during Early Life

Born without a Silver Spoon: A Review of the Causes and Consequences of Adversity during Early Life

Ontogenetic effects of brood parasitism by the Brown‐headed Cowbird on host offspring

Avian Reproduction: Post-hatching Parental Care and Brood Parasitism

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