Current Biology
Volume 22, Issue 22, 20 November 2012, Pages 2155-2160
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Embryonic Learning of Vocal Passwords in Superb Fairy-Wrens Reveals Intruder Cuckoo Nestlings

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Summary

How do parents recognize their offspring when the cost of making a recognition error is high [1, 2, 3]? Avian brood parasite-host systems have been used to address this question because of the high cost of parasitism to host fitness. We discovered that superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) females call to their eggs, and upon hatching, nestlings produce begging calls with key elements from their mother’s “incubation call.” Cross-fostering experiments showed highest similarity between foster mother and nestling calls, intermediate similarity with genetic mothers, and least similarity with parasitic Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo (Chalcites basalis) nestlings. Playback experiments showed that adults respond to the begging calls of offspring hatched in their own nest and respond less to calls of other wren or cuckoo nestlings. We conclude that wrens use a parent-specific password [4] learned embryonically to shape call similarity with their own young and thereby detect foreign cuckoo nestlings.

Highlights

► Female superb fairy-wrens call to their eggs during late incubation ► The call has a “signature element” later present in the nestling begging calls ► Call similarity between mother and nestling calls is learned during the egg stage ► Males and females detect foreign nestlings that do not emit the signature element

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