Plaintive cuckoos do not select tailorbird hosts that match the phenotypes of their own eggs

Canchao Yang, Qiuli Huang, Longwu Wang, Aiwu Jiang, Bård G. Stokke, Frode Fossøy, Odd Helge Tunheim, Eivin Røskaft, Wei Liang and Anders P. Møller

Behavioral Ecology, 2016, vol. 27, issue 3, 835-841

Abstract: Lay Summary We studied the matching in egg appearance between plaintive cuckoos and their common tailorbird hosts, both of which have evolved blue and white eggs with brownish spots. Tailorbirds ejected all experimental eggs that differed from their own eggs but accepted almost all eggs belonging to their corresponding morphs. We provide evidence that plaintive cuckoos lay eggs randomly with respect to host egg appearance and that they do not selectively choose host nests to maximize egg matching and acceptance.

Keywords: Cacomantis merulinus; egg matching; egg polymorphism; frequency-dependent selection; Orthotomus sutorius (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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