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Patterns of egg yolk antioxidant co-variation in an avian brood parasite–host system

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Abstract

Despite their importance to offspring fitness outcomes, there has been little previous work on egg-mediated maternal effects in avian brood parasites which lay their eggs in the nests of other species. Here, we examine patterns of egg yolk antioxidant deposition in an avian host (red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus) and their brood parasite (brown-headed cowbird, Molothrus ater). Cowbird nestlings compete directly for food with host blackbird chicks and succeed, despite hatching from a smaller egg, by begging more intensely and growing as or more rapidly than their hosts. Dietary-derived antioxidants, such as carotenoids and vitamins E and A, deposited in egg yolk, may enhance growth rate and reduce oxidative stress, and therefore provide a potential mechanism by which female cowbirds could enhance the competitiveness of their young in host nests. However, provision of antioxidants to eggs is costly so we predicted that female cowbirds should adjust the amount of antioxidants in response to variation in host quality. We found that whilst red-winged blackbird clutches parasitised by cowbirds did not differ in the pattern of antioxidant deposition compared to non-parasitised clutches, levels of vitamin E deposited in cowbird eggs were closely matched to that of the individual host clutch in which cowbirds laid their egg. This supports the prediction that female cowbirds adjust the antioxidant concentration of their eggs to increase the likely competitiveness of their offspring in the host nest into which they are laid and may help explain the success of cowbirds in competing with larger host young.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following people for their assistance in the field: in 2007 Jessie Cameron, Meghan Chatwin, Jodi Griffiths, Laura Groening, Miriam Knolly, Carrie Ross, and Aaron Trachtenberg, and in 2008, Joana Agudo, Meghan Chatwin, Leanne Grieves, Joana Nunes, and James Rogers. Thanks also to Sam Weber for advice and help with laboratory protocols, and to two anonymous reviewers who provided constructive comments on a previous version of this paper. Our field methodology received prior approval from the Senate Animal Care Committee (SACC) of the University of Winnipeg. This research was funded by a NERC New Investigator grant to NJR (NE/E001351/1). JDB was supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecology and Conservation, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, UK

    Nick J. Royle, Margaret E. Hall & Jonathan D. Blount

  2. Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2E9, Canada

    Scott Forbes

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  1. Nick J. Royle
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  2. Margaret E. Hall
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  3. Jonathan D. Blount
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  4. Scott Forbes
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Correspondence to Nick J. Royle.

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Communicated by J. Graves

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Royle, N.J., Hall, M.E., Blount, J.D. et al. Patterns of egg yolk antioxidant co-variation in an avian brood parasite–host system. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 313–323 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1048-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1048-3

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