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Abstract
document 21 observations of interspecific stealing of nesting material involving Cerulean Warblers (
Dendroica cerulea), Red-eyed Vireos (
Vireo olivaceus/i>), Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (Polioptila caerulea/i>), Northern Parulas (Parula americana/i>), Black-throated Green Warblers (D. virens), American Redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla/i>), and Orchard Orioles (Zcterus spurius/i>) that occurred during studies of Cerulean Warbler breeding biology. These incidents involved a variety of combinations of nest owner and nest material thief suggesting that each of these species is both a perpetrator and recipient of this behavior in our study areas. Kleptoparasitic incidents occurred at all stages of the nesting cycle from nest-building through post-fledging. Two possible motivations for this behavior are related to saving time in finding nest materials and collecting this material for nest construction.
Citation
Jones, Kelly C.; Roth, Kirk L.; Islam, Kamal; Hamel, Paul B.; Smith, Carl G. III. 2007. Incidence of nest material kleptoparasitism invlovling cerulean warblers. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Vol. 119(2): 271-275
