Table 1 Summary of previous studies of egg matching by cuckoos and current theories violated by the findings
Former studies | Data source | Method | Main findings | Theories violated by the findings | Costs for the cuckoos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Avilés et al. (2006) | Museum and field data | comparing cuckoo egg matching between parasitized and non-parasitized nests | cuckoos laid matching eggs | secretive behavior and rapid egg-laying of cuckoos; host imprinting and host selection by cuckoos | increase the risk of detection by hosts; loss of time searching for nests and monitoring host behavior; mis-imprinting in host selection |
Cherry et al. (2007) | Field data | cuckoos laid matching eggs | |||
Honza et al.(2014) | Field data | cuckoos laid matching eggs | |||
Antonov et al. (2012) | Field data | cuckoo laid eggs randomly | - | waste of poor-matching eggs in nests when hosts are good rejecters |