ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2015
Evidence for aggressive mimicry in an adult brood parasitic bird, and generalized defences in its host.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cuckoo Hosts Fine-Tune Their Egg Rejection After Experiencing a Parasitism Event.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Aggressive hosts are undeterred by a cuckoo's hawk mimicry, but probably make good foster parents.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Female Cuckoo Calls Deceive Their Hosts by Evoking Nest-Leaving Behavior: Variation under Different Levels of Parasitism.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Thicker eggshells are not predicted by host egg ejection behaviour in four species of Australian cuckoo.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- From micro- to macroevolution: brood parasitism as a driver of phenotypic diversity in birds.Current zoology · 2020Article
- The false cleanerfish relies on aggressive mimicry to bite fish fins when benthic foods are scarce in their local habitat.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Vive la difference! Self/non-self recognition and the evolution of signatures of identity in arms races with parasites.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Higher-level pattern features provide additional information to birds when recognizing and rejecting parasitic eggs.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Colour, vision and coevolution in avian brood parasitism.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Camouflage predicts survival in ground-nesting birds.Scientific reports · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Mimicry of a harmless model (aggressive mimicry) is used by egg, chick and fledgling brood parasites that resemble the host's own eggs, chicks and fledglings. However, aggressive mimicry may also evolve in adult brood parasites, to avoid attack from hosts and/or manipulate their perception of parasitism risk. We tested the hypothesis that female cuckoo finches (Anomalospiza imberbis) are aggressive mimics of female Euplectes weavers, such as the harmless, abundant and sympatric southern red bishop (Euplectes orix). We show that female cuckoo finch plumage colour and pattern more closely resembled those of Euplectes weavers (putative models) than Vidua finches (closest relatives); that their tawny-flanked prinia (Prinia subflava) hosts were equally aggressive towards female cuckoo finches and southern red bishops, and more aggressive to both than to their male counterparts; and that prinias were equally likely to reject an egg after seeing a female cuckoo finch or bishop, and more likely to do so than after seeing a male bishop near their nest. This is, to our knowledge, the first quantitative evidence for aggressive mimicry in an adult bird, and suggests that host-parasite coevolution can select for aggressive mimicry by avian brood parasites, and counter-defences by hosts, at all stages of the reproductive cycle.
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Registered trials
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