Fitting different visual models to behavioral patterns of parasitic egg rejection along a natural egg color gradient in a cavity-nesting host species

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68081766%3A_____%2F20%3A00520689" target="_blank" >RIV/68081766:_____/20:00520689 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042698919302305?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042698919302305?via%3Dihub</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2019.12.007" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.visres.2019.12.007</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Fitting different visual models to behavioral patterns of parasitic egg rejection along a natural egg color gradient in a cavity-nesting host species

Original language description

Avian brood parasites lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, and hosts can mitigate the fitness cost of raising unrelated offspring by rejecting parasitic eggs. A visually-based cognitive mechanism often thought to be used by hosts to discriminate the foreign egg is to compare it against the hosts’ own eggshell by size, shape, maculation, and/or ground coloration (i.e., absolute chromatic contrast). However, hosts may instead discriminate eggs based on their colors along a scale of natural avian eggshell coloration (i.e., directional chromatic contrast). In support of this latter visual process, recent research has found that directional chromatic contrasts can explain some host species’ rejection behavior better than absolute chromatic or achromatic contrasts. Here, for the first time, we conducted an experiment in a cavity-nesting host species to test the predictions of these different visual mechanisms. We experimentally parasitized nests of the Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus, a regular host of a mimetic-egg laying Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus host-race, using painted, immaculate 3D-printed model eggs in two geographically distant areas (Finland and Czech Republic). We found that directional chromatic contrasts better explained rejection behaviors in both parasitized (Finland) and non-parasitized (Czech Republic) host populations, as hosts rejected eggs that were noticeably browner, but not eggs that were noticeably bluer, than redstart eggs. These results support the paradigm of a single rejection threshold predicted by the directional chromatic contrast model and contribute to a growing generality of these patterns across diverse avian host-brood parasite systems.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

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

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10613 - Zoology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA17-12262S" target="_blank" >GA17-12262S: Reproductive strategies of an obligate brood parasite: host selection, offspring sex allocation and individual success</a><br>

Continuities

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

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

Vision Research

ISSN

0042-6989

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

167

Issue of the periodical within the volume

FEB

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

6

Pages from-to

54-59

UT code for WoS article

000510315600008

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85077924408