Offspring are frequently raised alongside their siblings and are provisioned early in life by adults. Adult provisioning is stimulated by offspring begging, but it is unclear how each offspring should beg, given the begging behaviour of their siblings. It has previously been suggested that siblings may compete directly through begging for a fixed level of provisioning, or that siblings may coop...

Nestling begging behavior is usually characterized by a behavioral response of increasing begging levels with an increase in nestling need or hunger. Recent evidence for the possible effect of learning on begging intensity raises the question of how learning can shape this response rule. In particular, it is not clear whether hungry nestlings can learn to reduce their begging when it is not suc...

Evolutionary theory of parent-offspring conflict assumes that offspring food solicitation behavior, known as begging, and parental response to begging are subjected to selection and coevolution. This assumption implies that begging intensity should be heritable, at least to some degree. Although some studies have suggested that begging is heritable, the evidence for this is rare and mostly indi...

Offspring solicit food to their parents by begging displays, which are important in the parent–offspring communication. Most theoretical approximations on this behavior have centered on the view of begging as an honest signal of need or as a form of scramble competition for resources. In both signaling models, costly begging is necessary to stabilize the begging strategy at equilibrium. Neverth...

Offspring solicit food from their parents by begging behaviours. Studies on birds suggest that these displays are 'honest signals of need' and adults provide food according to the begging level. However, siblings may compete for parental resources and the begging intensity is expected to change with brood size. Here, we show that in the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus) an increase of the nu...

Evolutionary theory of parent-offspring conflict explains begging displays of nestling birds as selfish attempts to influence parental food allocation. Models predict that this conflict may be resolved by honest signaling of offspring need to parents, or by competition among nestmates, leading to escalated begging scrambles. Although the former type of models has been qualitatively supported by...

The offspring of birds and mammals solicit food from their parents by a combination of movements and vocalizations that have come to be known collectively as 'begging'. Recently, begging has most often been viewed as an honest signal of offspring need. Yet, if offspring learn to adjust their begging efforts to the level that rewards them most, begging intensities may also reflect offsprings' pa...

This study presents data relevant to the hypothesis that the energy expenditure associated with begging influences the signalling of need by nestling birds. We used open-circuit respirometry to measure the energy costs of resting, begging and non-begging activities in nestling house wrens, Troglodytes aedon, ranging in age from 1 to 11 days post-hatching. Across all ages, begging caused a 27% i...

The evolutionary stability of honest signalling by offspring is thought to require that begging displays be costly, so the costs and benefits of begging--and whether they are experienced individually or by the whole brood--are crucial to understanding the evolution of begging behaviour. Begging is known to have immediate individual benefits (parents distribute more food to intensely begging ind...

In nestling birds, begging typically signals short-term hunger and is often used by parents to allocate food within a brood. Although young birds continue to beg long after nest departure less is known about the information content of begging and its influence on parental allocation patterns post-fledging. We examined the function of begging in fledgling American dippers (Cinclus mexicanus) and...