Horsfield's Hawk-Cuckoo Nestlings Simulate Multiple Gapes for Begging

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 308; no. 5722; p. 653
• Main Authors: Tanaka, Keita D, Ueda, Keisuke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 29.04.2005; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Adaptation, Biological; Analysis; Animal behavior; Animal Communication; Animal ethology; Animal wings; Animals; Aves; Behavior, Animal; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Bird nesting; Birds; Birds - anatomy & histology; Brevia; Brood parasitism; Chicks; Coloring Agents; Cuckoos; Cuculus fugax; Cues; Dyeing; Feeding Behavior; Food; Food security; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hunger; Linear Models; Nesting Behavior; Nestlings; Observations; Parents; Pigmentation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Vertebrata; Wildfowl; Wings, Animal - anatomy & histology; Japan; Vertebrata; Wing; Beak; Morphology; Social parasitism; Lure; Food begging behavior; Aves; Nestling
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1109957

Nestlings of some brood parasitic birds evict hosts' eggs and young soon after hatching, thereby avoiding discrimination by hosts while monopolizing parental care. Eviction carries a cost, however, because lone parasitic nestlings attract a reduced provisioning rate. Here we describe a form of visual signaling used by the evicting Horsfield's hawk-cuckoo (Cuculus fugax) to obtain sufficient food. The chick displays a gape-colored patch on the wing to the host parents as they deliver food, simulating the gaping display of more than one nestling.