How cuckoos find and choose host nests for parasitism

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.

[1]  E. Røskaft,et al.  Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus and host behaviour at Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus nests , 2008 .

[2]  A. Møller,et al.  Do common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) possess an optimal laying behaviour to match their own egg phenotype to that of their Oriental reed warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) hosts , 2016 .

[3]  B. Taborsky,et al.  How do cuckoos find their hosts? The role of habitat imprinting , 1998, Animal Behaviour.

[4]  M. Soler.  Long‐term coevolution between avian brood parasites and their hosts , 2014, Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

[5]  H. Nagata,et al.  Breeding ecology of the Eastern Great Reed Warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus orientalis at Lake Kasumigaura, central Japan , 2002 .

[6]  A. Zahavi,et al.  Constraints on egg discrimination and cuckoo-host co-evolution , 1995, Animal Behaviour.

[7]  Z. Barta,et al.  ADAPTATIONS BY GREAT REED WARBLERS TO BROOD PARASITISM: A COMPARISON OF POPULATIONS IN SYMPATRY AND ALLOPATRY WITH THE COMMON CUCKOO , 2002 .

[8]  A. Bennett,et al.  Do cuckoos choose nests of great reed warblers on the basis of host egg appearance? , 2007, Journal of evolutionary biology.

[9]  R. Prum,et al.  Evolution of Avian Plumage Color in a Tetrahedral Color Space: A Phylogenetic Analysis of New World Buntings , 2008, The American Naturalist.

[10]  Longwu Wang,et al.  Nest sanitation behavior in hirundines as a pre-adaptation to egg rejection to counter brood parasitism , 2014, Animal Cognition.

[11]  J. M. Smith,et al.  Optimality theory in evolutionary biology , 1990, Nature.

[12]  Z. Karcza,et al.  Experimental Manipulation of Intraclutch Variation in the Great Reed Warbler Shows No Effect on Rejection of Parasitic Eggs , 2003 .

[13]  Z. Barta,et al.  Cuckoo parasitism on two closely-related Acrocephalus warblers in distant areas: a case of parallel coevolution? , 2012 .

[14]  Arnon Lotem,et al.  Rejection of cuckoo eggs in relation to host age: a possible evolutionary equilibrium , 1992 .

[15]  J. Shykoff,et al.  Are Cuckoos Maximizing Egg Mimicry by Selecting Host Individuals with Better Matching Egg Phenotypes? , 2012, PloS one.

[16]  B. Taborsky,et al.  Behaviour of female common cuckoos, Cuculus canorus, in the vicinity of host nests before and during egg laying: a radiotelemetry study , 2002, Animal Behaviour.

[17]  A. MØller,et al.  Rapid increase in cuckoo egg matching in a recently parasitized reed warbler population , 2006, Journal of evolutionary biology.

[18]  B. Taborsky,et al.  Cuckoo females preferentially use specific habitats when searching for host nests , 2002, Animal Behaviour.

[19]  N. Davies,et al.  Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats , 2000 .

[20]  B. Stokke,et al.  Oriental reed warbler (Acrocephalus orientalis) nest defence behaviour towards brood parasites and nest predators , 2015 .

[21]  A. Møller,et al.  Absence of egg rejection in an Asian population of house sparrow (Passer domesticus), a conspecific brood parasite in Europe , 2015, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

[22]  Nigel Davies.  Cuckoo adaptations: trickery and tuning , 2011 .

[23]  J. Soler,et al.  Host sexual selection and cuckoo parasitism: an analysis of nest size in sympatric and allopatric magpie Pica pica populations parasitized by the great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius , 1999, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[24]  E. Røskaft,et al.  Rejection Behavior by Common Cuckoo Hosts Towards Artificial Brood Parasite Eggs , 1991 .

[25]  P. Procházka,et al.  Brood parasites lay eggs matching the appearance of host clutches , 2014, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[26]  M. Stevens,et al.  Pattern mimicry of host eggs by the common cuckoo, as seen through a bird's eye , 2010, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[27]  Longwu Wang,et al.  Geographic variation in parasitism rates of two sympatric cuckoo hosts in China. , 2014, Dong wu xue yan jiu = Zoological research.

[28]  Why cuckoos should parasitize parrotbills by laying eggs randomly rather than laying eggs matching the egg appearance of parrotbill hosts? , 2015, Avian Research.