ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2011
Internal incubation and early hatching in brood parasitic birds.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative population genomics reveals convergent adaptation across independent origins of avian obligate brood parasitism.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Genomic resources for comparative analyses of obligate avian brood parasitism.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Brood parasitism and host-parasite relationships: Cuckoos adapt to reduce the time of hatching ahead of host nestlings by increasing egg thickness.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2024Article
- Highly virulent avian brood-parasitic species show elevated embryonic metabolic rates at specific incubation stages compared to less virulent and non-parasitic species.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Eggshell composition and surface properties of avian brood-parasitic species compared with non-parasitic species.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Red-backed shrike (Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Cuckoos use host egg number to choose host nests for parasitism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Early life-history features associated with brood parasitism in the cuckoo catfish, Synodontis multipunctatus (Siluriformes: Mochokidae).Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Convergent evolution of reduced eggshell conductance in avian brood parasites.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Keeping eggs warm: thermal and developmental advantages for parasitic cuckoos of laying unusually thick-shelled eggs.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2018Article
- Dissection and downstream analysis of zebra finch embryos at early stages of development.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2014Article
- A stab in the dark: chick killing by brood parasitic honeyguides.Biology letters · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The offspring of brood parasitic birds benefit from hatching earlier than host young. A proposed but little-known strategy to achieve this is 'internal incubation', by retaining the egg in the oviduct for an additional 24 h. To test this, we quantified the stage of embryo development at laying in four brood parasitic birds (European cuckoo, Cuculus canorus; African cuckoo, Cuculus gularis; greater honeyguide, Indicator indicator; and the cuckoo finch, Anomalospiza imberbis). For the two cuckoos and the honeyguide, all of which lay at 48 h intervals, embryos were at a relatively advanced stage at laying; but for the cuckoo finch (laying interval: 24 h) embryo stage was similar to all other passerines laying at 24 h intervals. The stage of embryo development in the two cuckoos and honeyguide was similar to that of a non-parasitic species that lay at an interval of 44-46 h, but also to the eggs of the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata incubated artificially at body temperature immediately after laying, for a further 24 h. Comparison with the zebra finch shows that internal incubation in the two cuckoos and honeyguide advances hatching by 31 h, a figure consistent with the difference between the expected and the observed duration of incubation in the European cuckoo predicted from egg mass. Rather than being a specific adaptation to brood parasitism, internal incubation is a direct consequence of a protracted interval between ovulation (and fertilization) and laying, but because it results in early hatching may have predisposed certain species to become brood parasitic.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.