Abstract
Parasite-host interactions are important in the study of evolutionary biology, but the direct fitness consequences of blood parasites have not been well studied. Blood was sampled from 48 female and 37 male Tengmalm's owls (Aegolius funereus) in 1991 and from 49 females and 48 males in 1992. The samples were randomly selected from between 93 and 128 breeding pairs trapped in western Finland. The avian haematozoas found in the blood films were Haemoproteus noctuae (prevalence 3% for females and 2% for males), H. syrnii (10% and 1%), Leucocytozoon ziemanni (97% and 94%) and Plasmodium circumflexum (0% and 1%). Leucocytozoon ziemanni reduced clutch size of females in 1991 when the abundance of the main food (voles) was intermediate, but had no apparent detrimental effect in 1992 when food abundance peaked
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