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Abstract
Avian lice may link fledgling Brown-headed Cowbirds to the host species that raised them. Lice, if host-specific and transferred to nestling cowbirds, could serve to identify the principal host species raising cowbirds in a local area. This approach of trapping cowbird fledglings in a feeding flock, then collecting and identifying the lice they carry is economical. The alternative requires a team of people to locate large numbers of parasitized host nests. We trapped 250 cowbird fledglings during June-August 1994 on Patuxent Research Center, and from them we collected 426 lice identified as representing 6 genera and 12 species. We. also collected and identified 347 lice from 30 known host species that were mist-netted on our Center. The lice found on cowbird fledglings in this population can be linked to Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Rufous-sided Towhee, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Song Sparrow, Field Sparrow, and Tree sparrow, based on this study and also on published reports.
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Using lice to identify cowbird hosts |
| Series title | Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue | 2 Suppl. Part 2 |
| Year Published | 1995 |
| Language | English |
| Contributing office(s) | Patuxent Wildlife Research Center |
| Description | 106 (abstract) |
| Larger Work Type | Article |
| Larger Work Subtype | Journal Article |
| Larger Work Title | Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America |
| First page | 106 (abs) |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |