Brood parasitism in the sand martin,Riparia riparia: evidence for two parasitic strategies in a colonial passerine

Abstract

Sand martin parentage was studied at a large breeding colony in central Scotland. Multilocus DNA fingerprinting was used during the 3-year study to exclude some social parents as true parents, and thereby determine the frequency of monogamy, quasiparasitism (QP), intraspecific brood parasitism (ISBP) and extrapair fertilization (EPF) amongst 45 broods and 167 nestlings. Monogamous parentage characterized the majority of broods (60%), so most chicks were the offspring of their social parents (81%). QP (involving a male’s extrapair mate laying in his nest) was found in 9% of broods and 2.4% of chicks and ISBP (or ‘egg dumping’) in 4% of broods and 1.8% of chicks. A substantial proportion of offspring arose from EPFs, affecting 36% of broods and 14% of chicks. On present evidence, the relatively high frequency of QP found in sand martins is unusual. We propose that its observed frequency is unlikely to be due to chance events and may represent a female-driven strategy.