The
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo, along with 40% of cuckoos is a brood
parasite. They lay their eggs in the nests of another bird species,
which will in turn often mistakenly raise the young cuckoo as their own.
Research has explored the evolutionary arms race between cuckoos and
their hosts for many years and has exposed an array of tactics each team
uses to help their young win out, including cucko
os
booting nest mates out & exploiting sensory biases in the host,
hosts develop ways to detect foreign eggs & chicks, and both
parasite & host changing the colour & pattern of their eggs. Now
in a new study published in Current Biology, researchers from Flinders
University in Australia have discovered yet another turn in this race.
Colombelli-Negrel et al., have found that in the days before their eggs
hatch, Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) mothers teach their
offspring “passwords.” This special “incubation call” contains a unique
note that is different from the typical fairy-wren call and the infants
in turn integrate the note into their begging call. It turns out that
the newly hatched cuckoo does not have the time to learn the “perfect”
begging call and the fairy-wren will abandon the nest.
A win for the fairy-wren & the race goes on!
Image source: http://www.birdphotos.com.au/
Read more at:
http://www.cell.com/
http://phys.org/news/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/
The
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo, along with 40% of cuckoos is a brood
parasite. They lay their eggs in the nests of another bird species,
which will in turn often mistakenly raise the young cuckoo as their own.
Research has explored the evolutionary arms race between cuckoos and
their hosts for many years and has exposed an array of tactics each team
uses to help their young win out, including cucko
os
booting nest mates out & exploiting sensory biases in the host,
hosts develop ways to detect foreign eggs & chicks, and both
parasite & host changing the colour & pattern of their eggs. Now
in a new study published in Current Biology, researchers from Flinders
University in Australia have discovered yet another turn in this race.
Colombelli-Negrel et al., have found that in the days before their eggs hatch, Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) mothers teach their offspring “passwords.” This special “incubation call” contains a unique note that is different from the typical fairy-wren call and the infants in turn integrate the note into their begging call. It turns out that the newly hatched cuckoo does not have the time to learn the “perfect” begging call and the fairy-wren will abandon the nest.
A win for the fairy-wren & the race goes on!
Image source: http://www.birdphotos.com.au/
Read more at:
http://www.cell.com/
http://phys.org/news/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/
Colombelli-Negrel et al., have found that in the days before their eggs hatch, Superb Fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) mothers teach their offspring “passwords.” This special “incubation call” contains a unique note that is different from the typical fairy-wren call and the infants in turn integrate the note into their begging call. It turns out that the newly hatched cuckoo does not have the time to learn the “perfect” begging call and the fairy-wren will abandon the nest.
A win for the fairy-wren & the race goes on!
Image source: http://www.birdphotos.com.au/
Read more at:
http://www.cell.com/
http://phys.org/news/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/
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