Light matters:Nest illumination alters egg rejection behavior in a cavity-nesting bird  

作　　者：Canchao Yang Anders Pape Møller Wei Liang 

机构地区：[1]Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands,Key Laboratory of Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology of Hainan Province,College of Life Sciences,Hainan Normal University,Haikou,571158,China [2]Ecologie Systématique Evolution,UniversitéParis-Sud,CNRS,AgroParisTech,UniversitéParis-Saclay,F-91405,Orsay Cedex,France

出　　处：《Avian Research》2022年第1期64-67,共4页鸟类学研究（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No.320CXTD437 and 2019RC189 to CY);the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.31772453 and 31970427 to WL)

摘　　要：Egg discrimination by cavity-nesting birds that build nests under dim light conditions was presumed to depend on nest luminance,although this hypothesis has rarely been tested.Tests of egg discrimination ability by cavity-nesting tits under dim light conditions may reveal the selection pressure from brood parasitism that they encounter under natural interactions.We manipulated the intensity of luminance of nests of the Green-backed Tit(Parus monticolus),a potential cuckoo host that possesses a strong discrimination ability of non-mimetic foreign eggs.We performed experiments to test their egg discrimination ability under different light conditions.Our results showed that Green-backed Tits discriminate against non-mimetic foreign eggs under normal light conditions in nest boxes,and this ability persisted at nest luminance as low as 4.78±1.31 lux that is several times lower than normal luminance(38.11±24.02 lux).However,egg discrimination by Green-backed Tits disappeared when nest luminance was reduced to a minimum of 0.35±0.15 lux.The latter value represents total darkness for humans.The present study shows that nest luminance plays a key role in egg discrimination by Green-backed Tits that build nests under dim light conditions.This study provides strong experimental evidence for nest illumination altering egg rejection behavior in cavity-nesting birds.

关 键 词：Brood parasitism Cryptic egg Egg rejection Luminance manipulation Nest light condition 

分 类 号：Q958[生物学—动物学]