Nest secondary plants and their associations with haemosporidian blood parasites in blue tit females.

ABSTRACT: Avian nests often contain aromatic plant fragments, which has led to propose among others that they repel ectoparasites or vectors of blood parasites (‘nest protection hypothesis’). To date, the relationship between secondary plant provisioning and the parent's blood parasites remains unexplored. We investigated whether the presence of secondary plants in nests during different reproductive stages (before incubation, during incubation and nestling period) was associated with the presence of nest-dwelling ectoparasites and females’ blood-parasite infections in blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) during chick rearing. In this species, females are highly exposed to parasites, particularly at the beginning of the breeding season, since they build the nest and incubate alone. They also brood

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Campa J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11894026 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature