Adaptations during the nestling and fledgling stages

DE MÁRSICO, M. CECILIA; TUERO, D; FIORINI, V.; GLOAG, ROS; URSINO, CYNTHIA A.; REBOREDA, JUAN CARLOS

Avian Brood Parasitism - Behaviour, Ecology, Evolution and Coevolution

Springer-Verlag

Lugar: Berlin Heidelberg; Año: 2018;

Young of altricial brood parasites are fully dependent on their fosterparents for a considerable period of time before being able to survive on theirown. Therefore, they are expected to exhibit traits that allow them to avoid hostdefences and manipulate host?s parental behaviour to their favour. Manymorphological, physiological and behavioural traits have been proposed asadaptations for brood parasitism based on their apparent selective advantage forparasitic chicks. In this chapter we describe and discuss these putativeadaptations to examine, in the light of available evidence, whether or notthose traits have evolved specifically to increase parasites? fitness. We showthat whereas some adaptations are well-supported and indisputable, other traitsrequire a closer scrutiny taking into account the parasite?s evolutionaryhistory before concluding that they are true adaptations for brood parasitism.We propose some future directions for research on key adaptations to parasitismand coevolutionary interactions between parasites and their hosts during the nestlingand fledgling stages.