First record of interspecific cooperative breeding among redstart species

ABSTRACT

We report the first record of a single nest containing the young of a pair of Black Redstarts Phoenicurus ochruros and a pair of Common Redstarts Phoenicurus phoenicurus. All four parents provisioned the nestlings with food, and indiscriminately provided food to chicks of both species and with a very high overlap of activity rhythms. Our observation provides further evidence of the plasticity of these passerine bird species in brood management.

KEYWORDS:

• Nest sharing
• interspecific cooperative breeding
• Phoenicurus phoenicurus
• Phoenicurus ochruros

Acknowledgements

Dr. Matteo Riccardo Di Nicola helped us in photo and video editing, and in the collage of images. The authors would like to thank Simone Vergari and Alessandro Sacchetti for their collaboration and suggestions, Riccardo Logli for help in collecting photographic and video material, and E. Bassett who kindly took the time to revise the English language before submission. An anonymous reviewer and the Associate Editor kindly improved our MS with their comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

EM was funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.4 - Call for tender No. 3138 of 16 December 2021, rectified by Decree n.3175 of 18 December 2021 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU; Project code CN_00000033, Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP B83C22002930006, Project title “National Biodiversity Future Center - NBFC”.