Bitter tastes can influence birds’ dietary expansion strategies

John Skelhorn

Behavioral Ecology, 2016, vol. 27, issue 3, 725-730

Abstract: Lay Summary Tasting a bitter-flavored toxin caused birds to prefer small novel-colored prey over large novel-colored prey. Birds that did not taste the toxin preferred larger (more nutritious) novel prey over smaller novel prey. This behavior could benefit birds by reducing the volume of novel prey (and the amount of toxin) eaten when the risk of the novel prey being toxic is high, while allowing them to maximize nutrient intake when the risk is low.

Keywords: antipredator; aposematism; diet breadth; dietary conservatism; neophobia; toxicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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