How cuckoos find and choose host nests for parasitism

Canchao Yang, Longwu Wang, Wei Liang and Anders Pape Møller

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 3, 859-865

Abstract: Lay Summary We provide experimental evidence to confirm that the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) locates its Oriental reed warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) host nests by monitoring the activities of nest owners. Cuckoos distinguished between nest types of different host species and choose to parasitize nests of the most commonly parasitized host, while cuckoos did not choose to lay eggs in nests matching the appearance of their own eggs.

Keywords: egg phenotype matching; habitat imprinting; host imprinting; host monitoring; nest preference; optimality theory. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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