Cuckoo Hosts Fine-Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event.

ABSTRACT: Recognising and rejecting parasitic eggs is one of the most common anti-parasitism strategies used by host birds. However, the egg rejection of some hosts exhibits behavioural plasticity. To investigate whether the egg rejection behaviour of host birds changes after encountering a parasitism event, we conducted egg rejection experiments on the locally most common host of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), the grey bushchat (Saxicola ferreus) in Yunnan, China. When a single pure white egg of the white-rumped munia (Lonchura striata) or a blue model egg was individually added to the nest of the grey bushchat, the rejection rate for the white-rumped munia eggs was as high as 93.3%, whereas the rejection rate for the blue model egg was minimal (5.56%). However, when the

SUBMITTER: Li B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11707265 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature