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Differently sized cuckoos pose different threats to hosts.

Jiangping Yu1,2, Mingju E3, Wei Sun2

  • 1Jilin Engineering Laboratory for Avian Ecology and Conservation Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China.

Current Zoology
|May 23, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Chinese tits exhibit antiparasitic behaviors, with responses varying based on cuckoo species size. Green-backed tits perceive small Asian emerald cuckoos as a greater threat than larger common cuckoos, unlike cinereous tits.

Keywords:
body sizecinereous titcuckoo parasitismgreen-backed titplay-backsympatry with multiple cuckoo species

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Ornithology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Hole-nesting tits (Parus spp.) are often considered unsuitable hosts for cuckoo parasitism due to nest entrance size limitations.
  • However, some tit species demonstrate antiparasitic behaviors, such as egg ejection, which may be influenced by the diversity of sympatric cuckoo species.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether differently sized parasitic cuckoos pose varying threats to Chinese tits.
  • To compare the antiparasitic responses of green-backed tits (Parus monticolus) and cinereous tits (P. cinereus) to different avian species and nest predators.

Main Methods:

  • Observational and playback experiments were conducted on green-backed and cinereous tit populations.
  • Behavioral responses and alarm calls were recorded in response to Asian emerald cuckoos, common cuckoos, chipmunks, and doves.
  • Alarm calls were played back to incubating females to assess their responses.

Main Results:

  • Both tit species showed strong responses to chipmunks but minimal response to avian species in dummy experiments.
  • Playback experiments revealed strong responses to chipmunk alarm calls and weak responses to dove alarm calls.
  • Green-backed tits exhibited similar response intensities to both cuckoo species' alarm calls, with a slightly higher response to the smaller Asian emerald cuckoo.
  • Cinereous tits showed minimal response to alarm calls of either cuckoo species.

Conclusions:

  • The threat posed by the Asian emerald cuckoo is perceived as slightly greater than that of the common cuckoo by sympatric green-backed tits.
  • Cinereous tits, not sympatric with the smaller cuckoo, did not differentiate threat levels between the two cuckoo species.
  • Tit antiparasitic behavior may evolve in response to the size variation of sympatric parasitic cuckoo species.