One of my favorite talks so far on the trip was by Christine Riehl, who studies an amazing species of birds called the Greater Ani. These birds are particularly interesting because they exhibit communal nesting - meaning that multiple females share one nest, which is quite different from most bird species.
Picture by Dominic Sherony (Wikipedia)
This leads to some pretty peculiar social behavior by these birds, but it also gives them a huge advantage because there are multiple individuals who can guard the nest, fight for the safest nesting spot and feed the chicks. There is also fierce competition among the females sharing a nest. Depending on when a female lays an egg, the other females will push it out and break it to help give their own eggs an advantage. The first egg laid is always destroyed because the other females who have not laid an egg are positive that it cannot be their own. After the second egg is laid, the birds cannot differentiate their own and are less like to push eggs out of the nest. This nest competition is balanced with the huge advantage that communal nesting gives to these birds.
-- Patrick



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    We are a group of graduate students from University of Illinois, Arizona State University and McGill University spending a semester in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute as a part of the NSF IGERT program. See details about each of us under the "About Us" tab!


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