Search

We studied the effect of capture and handling on free-living red-billed choughs Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax. We analysed the association between bird behavioural response and individual health, breeding status, sex, and age. Active responses (aggression towards the ringer, screaming) were more common in the breeding period, and in individuals with a high heterophils to lymphocytes ratio, indicating poor physiological condition and/or high chronic stress. Adults were more aggressive than juveniles and yearlings, and females were more aggressive than males. Sex, age, and condition differences were also recorded in the spectrotemporal output of distress calls. Birds with a screaming/active response appeared to be more stress-susceptible than passive and silent individuals, and this response was stronger during the energy demanding period of reproduction. The results obtained suggest that the response of the red-billed chough during capture might primarily reflect stress-susceptibility, although a number of potential alternative explanations are discussed. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 96, 846–855.

Studies of sibling competition within brood hierarchies have rarely assessed simultaneously the effects of sex and rank in the brood hierarchy on traits other than offspring mortality and differential growth. We studied the expression of heat-shock proteins (Hsps) to assess the physiological stress response to different combinations of sex and position within competitive brood hierarchies in the black kite Milvus migrans (Bodd.), a sexually dimorphic raptor showing facultative siblicide. Senior males showed higher stress levels than did senior females and younger siblings of each sex as revealed by Hsp60 values. The analysis of Hsp70 levels indicated that nestlings from broods in which the senior chick was a male showed higher stress levels than did nestlings from broods in which the senior chick was a female. In addition, levels of Hsp60 were related negatively to nutritional condition expressed as levels of plasmatic albumin. This suggests that the sex of senior chicks may be key in determining their stress level and that of their siblings, which is probably associated with sibling competition by fighting within brood hierarchies. The comparatively higher stress levels of senior males (and their siblings) may be a consequence of their ability to exploit their potential advantage from being the head start while avoiding a possible competitive disadvantage from being the smaller sex, independent of environmental conditions determining the probability of brood reduction. Differential stress levels depending on sex and rank in the brood hierarchy may be a consequence of parental control of offspring behaviour through differential resource allocation (e.g. yolk androgens) or it may reflect adaptations of particular chicks (senior males) to enhance their competitive ability within brood hierarchies.

We assessed the potential control of female Scops owls (Otus scops) over the production of daughters and sons in relation to their order in the laying sequence, and investigated the possible adaptive value of such control on the survival and growth of nestlings. The population sex ratio at fledging was not significantly biased. A relationship between ovulation order and egg sex was found, which was mostly due to the strong male biased sex ratio among initial eggs, as 17 of 18 first-hatched chicks (94%) from first-laid eggs were males. Asynchronous laying and subsequent asynchronous hatching resulted in a decreasing survival of chicks with increasing hatching order. Female chicks fledged with a higher mass than males and fledging mass decreased with hatching order due to male biased hatching order and its influence in the growth of the single first-hatched female. These results suggest that female Scops owls may be able to adjust the sex of their offspring at egg production to invest differentially in their survival and growth. © 2002 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002, 76, 1–7.

The immune system has high costs of maintenance and production and expression of immune function should be dependent on the condition of the individual. The fitness cost that parasites impose on hosts may then be reflected in the investment that hosts make in immunity. Little is known about sources and consequences of intra- and interspecific variation in the presence and size of organs of the immune system in relation to ectoparasitism. Variation in the presence and size of the bursa of Fabricius and spleen size was measured to assess potential relationships between immune defence, nutritional condition and ectoparasites in the Magpie Pica pica. We found three species of lice (Mallophaga), two species of louse flies (Hippoboscidae), and the larvae of a tick (Ixodidae) infecting magpies. Age explained a significant proportion of variation in prevalence and number of parasite species, first-year birds being more parasitized than adults. Spleen size increased with nutritional condition, and the level of ectoparasitism negatively affected nutritional condition. Only one species of lice (Philopterus picae) was involved; the negative effect of this species on nutritional condition was more pronounced in males than females. These results are consistent with the hypotheses of condition-dependent investment in the immune system and sexual differences in susceptibility to parasite effects. Ectoparasites may thus play a role in modulating the relationship between condition and immune defence. We also found evidence for an interaction between the bursa and the spleen. Magpies with bursa had larger spleens than those where it had atrophied. This interaction did not affect ectoparasitism or nutritional condition.