Brood Parasitism in Birds

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of interest in the subject of brood parasitism, an explosion that has, we suggest, received crucial catalysis from two directions. Firstly, some 30 years ago Stephen Rothstein (Rothstein 1975a) realized that the behavior of birds that were potential hosts of cowbirds could be explored by placing model eggs into their nests. This proved a powerful technique for exploring many of the subtle coevolutionary interactions between parasites and hosts, and has since been widely adopted by other workers. As the complexity of these interactions has become appreciated, so evolutionary modelers have entered and contributed to the field. Secondly, refined DNA techniques have allowed the more reliable determination of the occurrence of intraspecific brood parasitism and hence the asking of more precise questions about its occurrence (McRae and Burke 1996). Considering first intraspecific and then interspecific brood parasitism, our chapter focuses on coevolutionary interactions associated with these phenomena.