Intraspecific nest parasitism in the Spotless StarlingSturnus unicolor

Intraspecific Nest Parasitism in the Starling (sturnus Vulgaris) in Northwestern Croatia

Dolenec, Z.: Intraspecific nest parasitism in the starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in northwestern Croatia. Nat. Croat., Vol. 10, No. 4., 315–320, 2001, Zagreb. This study reports intraspecific nest parasitism in starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in the village of Mokrice, northwestern Croatia, in 1999 and 2000. Twenty one (30.5%) out of 70 observed nests during the two years contained one or two parasit...

Intraspecific brood parasitism can increase the number of eggs that an individual lays in its own nest.

Intraspecific brood parasitism involves laying eggs in the nest of another individual of the same species without subsequently caring for the eggs or hatchlings. Where individuals lay in their own nest as well as parasitically, previous works predicted that parasitism leads to fewer eggs being laid in an individual's own nest, compared with the equivalent situation without parasitism. This is p...

Blue-green eggshell coloration reflects yolk antioxidant content in spotless starlings Sturnus unicolor

The hypothesis that eggshell colouration is a sexually selected trait of female birds is based on the fact that biliverdin, the pigment responsible for blue-green colours of the eggshell, is a potent antioxidant and that only females with high antioxidant capacity can deposit higher concentrations of biliverdin as eggshell pigment. Antioxidants (e.g. carotenoids, vitamins) are also abundant in ...

Sympatric speciation through intraspecific social parasitism.

Sympatric speciation through intraspecific social parasitism has been proposed for the evolution of Hymenopteran workerless parasites. Such inquilines exploit related host taxa to produce their own sexual offspring. The relatedness of inquilines to their hosts has been generalized in Emery's rule, suggesting that social parasites are close or the closest relatives to their host species. If the ...

Effects of Redhead Nest Parasitism on Mallards