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Home ยป The Red Gape of the Nestling Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) Is Not a Supernormal Stimulus for Three Common Hosts
The Red Gape of the Nestling Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) Is Not a Supernormal Stimulus for Three Common Hosts
Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 1999 |
Authors: | Noble, DG, Davies, NB, Hartley, IR, McRae, SB |
Journal: | Behaviour |
Volume: | 136 |
Issue: | 6 |
Date Published: | 1999 |
ISBN Number: | 00057959 |
Keywords: | Acrocephalidae, Acrocephalus, Acrocephalus scirpaceus, Cuculidae, Cuculus, Cuculus canorus, Erithacus, Erithacus rubecula, Muscicapidae, Prunella, Prunella modularis, Prunellidae |
Abstract: | The bright red gape of the nestling common cuckoo Cuculus canorus has often been supposed to act as a supernormal stimulus to elicit provisioning from its foster parents. Parents of three main host species were tested for their response to their own nestlings with artificially reddened gapes. Robins, dunnocks and reed warblers allocated no more food to red-mouthed nestlings than to control nestlings in the same nest, and manupulations of the gape colour of whole broods of reed warblers revealed no effect on provisioning rates. Our data do not support the hypothesis that there is a universal parental preference for redder gapes in opennesting passerines, or that the bright red gape of nestling cuckoos has evolved to exploit parental preferences in these three hosts. We suggest that although mouth colour has little influence on the allocation of feeds resulting from sibling competition and begging intensity in these species, it may have a role under certain conditions. |
URL: | http://www.jstor.org/stable/4535638 |
Short Title: | Behaviour |
Taxonomic name:
Acrocephalidae (Birds),
Acrocephalus (Birds),
Acrocephalus scirpaceus (Birds),
Cuculidae (Birds),
Cuculus (Birds),
Cuculus canorus (Birds),
Cuculus canorus (Birds),
Erithacus (Birds),
Erithacus rubecula (Birds),
Muscicapidae (Birds),
Prunella (Birds),
Prunellidae (Birds)
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical):
Ed Baker,
Katherine Bouton
Alice Heaton
Dimitris Koureas,
Laurence Livermore,
Dave Roberts,
Simon Rycroft,
Ben Scott,
Vince Smith