Does contrast between eggshell ground and spot coloration affect egg rejection?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15310%2F17%3A73585140" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15310/17:73585140 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00114-017-1476-2" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00114-017-1476-2</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1476-2" target="_blank" >10.1007/s00114-017-1476-2</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Does contrast between eggshell ground and spot coloration affect egg rejection?

Original language description

Obligate avian brood parasitic species impose the costs of incubating foreign eggs and raising young upon their unrelated hosts. The most common host defence is the rejection of parasitic eggs from the nest. Both egg colours and spot patterns influence egg rejection decisions in many host species, yet no studies have explicitly examined the role of variation in spot coloration. We studied the American robin Turdus migratorius, a blue-green unspotted egg-laying host of the brown-headed cowbird Molothrus ater, a brood parasite that lays non-mimetic spotted eggs. We examined host responses to model eggs with variable spot coloration against a constant robin-mimetic ground colour to identify patterns of rejection associated with perceived contrast between spot and ground colours. By using avian visual modelling, we found that robins were more likely to reject eggs whose spots had greater chromatic (hue) but not achromatic (brightness) contrast. Therefore, egg rejection decision rules in the American robin may depend on the colour contrast between parasite eggshell spot and host ground coloration. Our study also suggests that egg recognition in relation to spot coloration, like ground colour recognition, is tuned to the natural variation of avian eggshell spot colours but not to unnatural spot colours.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10615 - Ornithology

Project

<a href="/en/project/EE2.3.30.0041" target="_blank" >EE2.3.30.0041: POST-UP II.</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Science of Nature

ISSN

0028-1042

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

104

Issue of the periodical within the volume

54

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

9

Pages from-to

1-9

UT code for WoS article

000406966200002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

—