Table 1 Total number of Fan-tailed Gerygone broods, nests parasitised by Shining Bronze-cuckoo, number of cuckoo hatchlings and number of parasite nestling ejection events observed during the period 2011/12-2015/16 and 2017/18.

From: Visual discrimination of polymorphic nestlings in a cuckoo-host system

Brood type

Number of broods

Parasitised nests

Cuckoo nestlings

Ejection events**

Bright

66

7

7

7

Dark

13

3

3

3

Polymorphic

8

1

1

1

unknown brood type*

104

19

4

4

 

191

30

15

15

  1. *We could not determine the brood phenotype due to predation, hatching failure or accidental damage of the eggs. **In 11 naturally parasitised nests (5 bright monomorphic broods, 2 dark monomorphic, 1 polymorphic and 3 broods of unknown nestling composition) and in 4 nests (2 bright, 1 dark and 1 unknown) to which we introduced artificially incubated cuckoo nestlings.
Back to article page