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Reciprocal Aid‐giving in a Communal Bird
Author(s) -
Brown Jerram L.,
Brown Esther R.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
zeitschrift für tierpsychologie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0044-3573
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1980.tb01056.x
Subject(s) - reciprocal , nest (protein structural motif) , developmental psychology , psychology , biology , ecology , philosophy , biochemistry , linguistics
The feeding of young by parents was observed in three color‐banded families of wild Mexican jays. The development of indiscriminate feeding of each other's young by the parents began well before the young left the nest. These observations suggest that reciprocal feeding is not an accident and that it might be more beneficial than exclusive feeding of own young for parent Mexican Jays. The membership hypothesis and the helper‐resource hypothesis are proposed as possible explanations.