Contrasting effects of reduced incubation cost on clutch attendance by male and female European starlings

Abstract

In biparental birds, the relative contribution of the sexes to parental care can be viewed as a co-operative equilibrium that reflects the relative costs and benefits to each parent. If there are asymmetries in these costs or benefits, then any changes to the cost of care could result in a corresponding adjustment to their relative contribution. Incubation is a parental activity, shared in many species, which is costly both in terms of energy expenditure and time. In this study we manipulated the cost of incubation for pairs of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) by experimentally warming selected clutches to examine how this affected attendance by each parent. We found that total nest att..