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Begging affects parental effort in the pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca

Author

Summary, in English

It has been suggested that nestlings use begging to increase their share of parental resources at the expense of current or future siblings. There is ample evidence that siblings compete over food with nestmates by begging, but only short-term effects of begging on parental provisioning rates have been shown. In this study, we use a new experimental design to demonstrate that pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) nestlings that beg more are able to increase parental provisioning rates over the major part of the nestling period, thus potentially competing with future siblings. Parents were marked with microchips so that additional begging sounds could be played back when one of the parents visited the nest. By playing back begging sounds consistently at either male or female visits, a sex difference in provisioning rate that lasted for the major part of the nestling period was induced. If each parent independently adjusts its effort to the begging intensity of nestlings, begging may also be the proximate control mechanism for the sexual division of labour.

Publishing year

1997

Language

English

Pages

381-384

Publication/Series

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Volume

41

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Biological Sciences
  • Ecology

Keywords

  • Begging
  • Parental provisioning
  • Parent-provisioning
  • Parent-offspring conflict
  • Pied flycatcher
  • Ficedula hypoleuca

Status

Published

Research group

  • Biodiversity and Conservation Science

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1432-0762