The Red-billed Leiothrix Leiothrix lutea has been introduced to, and become established in Japan, the Hawaiian Islands and certain areas of Europe. Unlike in its native range, introduced Red-billed Leiothrix populations have not been observed to be hosts of avian brood parasites. We found a parasite egg with three host eggs in a Red-billed Leiothrix nest on 14 July 2010 on Mt Tsukuba, central Japan. Despite its marked difference from the host eggs, the parasite egg was accepted and incubated by the l Red-billed Leiothrix parent until the nest was depredated before hatching. The morphology of the parasite egg suggested that it belonged to Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus optatus.
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1 June 2014
The First Record of Brood Parasitism on the Introduced Red-Billed Leiothrix in Japan
Hitoshi Tojo,
Syuya Nakamura
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Ornithological Science
Vol. 13 • No. 1
June 2014
Vol. 13 • No. 1
June 2014
brood parasite
introduced species
Leiothrix lutea
nest temperature
Oriental Cuckoo