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Nidiparisitism



On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, BILL HILTON JR. (Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont 
Natural History) wrote:
> 
> I would suggest caution on thinking that every instance of nest 
> material removal is the work of the builder. This certainly occurs, 
> but it is also not uncommon among birds for one pair to steal nesting 
> material from another and incorporate it into a new nest. There's 
> probably even  technical term for this behavior, but I don't know 
> it--maybe  "nidiparasitism."

Just across the street from my prep school in Massachusetts, during 
spring of my junior year, we watched an Orchard Oriole carefully string 
up its hanging nest. And each time the Orchard left to collect more 
material, a Baltimore Oriole flew in, removed a bit, and took it back to 
add to his own nest!

This was just up the street from one of my all-time favorite "two birds 
in one binocular view" experiences, when my advisor and I, after a few 
seconds' debate over whether the brightly colored bird with black wings 
was a male Baltimore Oriole or a male Scarlet Tanager, discovered that we 
were both right!

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/