As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 22 August 2013

Honeyguide Birds Destroy Own Species' Eggs to Eliminate Competition



Aug. 21, 2013 — Like cuckoos, honeyguides are parasitic birds that lay their eggs in other birds' nests and dupe them into raising their young. Now scientists reveal that, unlike in cuckoos, the resemblance between honeyguide eggs and those of their bee-eater bird hosts hasn't evolved to trick hosts into accepting the imposter egg as one of their own. Rather, it appears to have evolved to trick other honeyguides who would otherwise destroy the eggs because of fierce competition for host nests.

The new research is published today, 21 August, in the journal Biology Letters.

Honeyguides are intriguingly odd birds that are best-known for their unique, mutually beneficial relationship with humans. Honeyguides love to eat beeswax. To obtain it, they guide human honey-hunters to bees' nests. In return for showing the humans the bees, the honeyguide gains access to the otherwise dangerous and impenetrable nest and its sought-after wax.

But these African birds also have a dark side. They are unusually vicious parasites whose imposter chicks stab the chicks of their host birds (often little bee-eaters) to death as soon as they hatch in order to eliminate competition for the host parents' care. The newly published research has shown that this fight for monopoly of the nest also extends to other honeyguides in a battle conducted deep underground in the nest burrows that bee-eaters dig into the roofs of Aardvark holes.

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