When parental care and the annual
molt overlap in time, a migratory songbird often chooses single-parent
desertion
Date: April 19, 2018
Source: American Ornithological Society Publications
Office
A new study shows that when
feather replacement and parental care overlap in time, migratory songbirds make
a striking trade-off; they desert their offspring, leaving their mates to
provide all remaining parental care.
This radical solution to conflict
between parental care and the annual molt provides "a nice illustration of
the complex lives that migratory songbirds lead," says Ron Mumme, the
study's author and Professor of Biology at Allegheny College in northwestern
Pennsylvania. "They have to negotiate conflicting demands and make
difficult trade-offs and compromises, just like we do."
Migratory songbirds that breed in
North America confront serious issues with time management. After spending a
relatively leisurely winter and early spring luxuriating in warm tropical
climates, they migrate north for a brief but highly eventful summer in North
America, during which they must complete three energetically demanding and
time-consuming tasks: (1) they must build nests, lay eggs, and provide for
their offspring until the young reach independence, (2) they must completely
replace all the feathers in their plumage as part of the annual molt, and (3)
they must prepare for the fall southward migration by eating prodigiously and
storing the body fat that will fuel their long-distance flights.
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