The optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis provides a general predictive framework for
testing behavioural responses to discrimination challenges. Decision-makers should …

Avian brood parasites, including cuckoos and cowbirds, have multiple negative effects on
their hosts. We analysed the effects of Shiny Cowbird Molothrus bonariensis parasitism on …

Neophobia, or the hesitancy to approach a novel food item, object, or place, is an important
factor influencing the foraging behavior of animals. Environmental factors (eg rapid …

Avian brood parasitism is reproductively costly for hosts and selects for cognitive features
enabling anti‐parasitic resistance at multiple stages of the host's breeding cycle. The true …

Brood parasitism imposes several fitness costs on the host species. To reduce these costs,
hosts of avian brood parasites have evolved various defenses, of which egg rejection is the …

Despite the costs to avian parents of rearing brood parasitic offspring, many species do not
reject foreign eggs from their nests. We show that where multiple parasitism occurs, rejection …

Interspecific brood parasites exploit the parental care of host species. This exploitation
entails fitness costs for the hosts, which favor the evolution of antiparasitic defenses. Host …

Obligate brood parasites neither build their own nests nor rear their offspring. Instead, they
lay their eggs in nests of individuals of other species (hosts) that take care of the parasite's …

Some brood parasites kill all their host's offspring shortly after hatching, whereas others are
tolerant and are reared in mixed host–parasite broods. This difference may arise because …

Abstract Bot flies (Diptera: Muscidae: Philornis spp.) are a group of flies comprising mostly
species with a Neotropical distribution. Their larvae parasitize several species of birds, living …