Red-winged blackbird parental investment following brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds: is parentage important?

Abstract

Parental investment by red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) in response to natural and experi‐mental parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater), and in response to freeze-dried, female cowbird mounts presented near redwing nests during the egg-laying period was measured. Two measures of redwing parental investment were used: nest defense effort toward a model predator, and rate of feeding nestlings. There were no significant differences in levels of parental investment among unparasitized nests, naturally parasitized nests, or experimentally parasitized nests. Similarly, parental investment did not differ between redwings that were exposed to the cowbird mount and those that were not exposed to the mount, or among redwings exposed to the cowbird mount at different distances from the nest. This suggests that red-winged blackbirds do not recognize when they have been parasitized, and hence do not associate parasitism with a decrease in their parentage, or that parentage is not an important predictor of parental investment in this species.