title: Competition with a host nestling for parental provisioning imposes recoverable costs on parasitic cuckoo chick's growth.
abstract: Chicks of the brood parasitic common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) typically monopolize host parental care by evicting all eggs and nestmates from the nest. To assess the benefits of parasitic eviction behaviour throughout the full nestling period, we generated mixed broods of one cuckoo and one great reed warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) to study how hosts divide care between own and parasitic young. We also recorded parental provisioning behaviour at nests of singleton host nestlings or singleton cuckoo chicks. Host parents fed the three types of broods with similar-sized food items. The mass of the cuckoo chicks was significantly reduced in mixed broods relative to singleton cuckoos. Yet, after the host chick fledged from mixed broods, at about 10-12 days, cuckoo chicks in mixed broods grew faster and appeared to have compensated for the growth costs of prior cohabitation by fledging at similar weights and ages compared to singleton cuckoo chicks. These results are contrary to suggestions that chick competition in mixed broods of cuckoos and hosts causes an irrecoverable cost for the developing brood parasite. Flexibility in cuckoos' growth dynamics may provide a general benefit to ecological uncertainty regarding the realized successes, failures, and costs of nestmate eviction strategies of brood parasites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, University of Szeged, Közép fasor 52, Szeged, Hungary.
authors.forename: Nikoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Geltsch
authors.forename: Márk E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Hauber
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Miklós
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bán
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moskát
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D004531:Eggs; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth / Q000502:physiology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009425:Nesting Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D010271:Parasites; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D020308:Songbirds / Q000502:physiology*; D014743:Videotape Recording; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000502:physiology