Egg rejection and egg recognition mechanism in a Chinese Azure-winged Magpie (<i>Cyanopica cyanus</i>) population

Jianping Liu; Longwu Wang; Wei Liang

doi:10.1016/j.avrs.2023.100112

Avian Research 2023, 14(3): 100112 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avrs.2023.100112

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Open Access | Issue | Published: 09 June 2023

Egg rejection and egg recognition mechanism in a Chinese Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) population

Show Author's Information Hide Author's Information Jianping Liu^{^a}, Longwu Wang^{^b}, Wei Liang^{^c}(

)

College of Biological Sciences and Engineering, North Minzu University, Yinchuan 750021, China

School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China

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

Keywords:

Cuckoo parasitism, Egg rejection, True recognition, Azure-winged Magpie, Recognition error

Cite this article:

Liu J, Wang L, Liang W. Egg rejection and egg recognition mechanism in a Chinese Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) population. Avian Research, 2023, 14(3): 100112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avrs.2023.100112

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Abstract

Recognition and rejection of foreign eggs are effective defense of hosts against brood parasitism. However, brood parasitism can impose various selection pressures on different geographic populations of the same host species. In a multiple cuckoo system in China, Azure-winged Magpies (Cyanopica cyanus) are parasitized by both Indian Cuckoos (Cuculus micropterus) and Asian Koels (Eudynamys scolopaceus). In this study, egg recognition ability and recognition mechanism of the Azure-winged Magpie were investigated using a population in Fusong, southeastern Jilin, China. The results showed that 55.6% (20/36) of the Azure-winged Magpies correctly rejected quail (Coturnix japonica) eggs in their nests, while 13.9% (5/36) of the individuals experienced rejection costs by wrongly rejecting their own eggs. Azure-winged Magpies could accurately reject the experimental eggs when the number of such eggs in the nests was the same as that of the magpie eggs. However, Azure-winged Magpies do not recognize and reject conspecific eggs (0/28). The present study indicates that the Azure-winged Magpie has moderate egg recognition ability toward non-mimetic quail eggs and shows a true recognition mechanism with rejecting foreign eggs by accurately recognizing their own eggs. However, they cannot recognize conspecific eggs.

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Egg rejection and egg recognition mechanism in a Chinese Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus) population

Show Author's information Hide Author's Information Jianping Liu^{^a}, Longwu Wang^{^b}, Wei Liang^{^c}(

)

College of Biological Sciences and Engineering, North Minzu University, Yinchuan 750021, China

School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China

Abstract

Keywords: Cuckoo parasitism, Egg rejection, True recognition, Azure-winged Magpie, Recognition error

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Received: 09 January 2023

Revised: 28 May 2023

Accepted: 30 May 2023

Published: 09 June 2023

Issue date: September 2023

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We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers' constructive comments which help improve this manuscript.

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This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).