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Fitness Effects of Parasites on Passerine Birds: A Review

  • Conference paper
Population Biology of Passerine Birds

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIG,volume 24))

Abstract

Reproductive success has been the target of many field studies of birds, because it is supposed to relate closely to fitness. Nest-predation has been since a long time recognized as a major determinant of reproductive success in passerine birds (e.g. Nice 1957, Ricklefs 1969). However, until quite recently, infestation by parasites has generally been neglected as a selective agent affecting fitness components in birds. One major reason for this neglect may be the fact that a large fraction of generalizations on passerine reproduction originate from nest-box studies, where effects of ecto-parasites have been minimized efficiently by field workers removing old parasite-infested nests (Møller 1989). Some effects of parasites may also have gone undetected because nest losses due to parasitism were mis-classified as being due to nest-predation or starvation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Uppsala University, Box 561, S-751 22, Uppsala, Sweden

    Anders P. Møller, Klas Allander & Reija Dufva

Authors
  1. Anders P. Møller
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  2. Klas Allander
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  3. Reija Dufva
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, B.P. 5051, 34033, Montpellier Cédex, France

    Jacques Blondel

  2. Department of Zoology, Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, Great Britain

    Andrew Gosler  & Robin McCleery  & 

  3. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, B.P. 5051, 34033, Montpellier Cédex, France

    Jean-Dominique Lebreton

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Møller, A.P., Allander, K., Dufva, R. (1990). Fitness Effects of Parasites on Passerine Birds: A Review. In: Blondel, J., Gosler, A., Lebreton, JD., McCleery, R. (eds) Population Biology of Passerine Birds. NATO ASI Series, vol 24. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75110-3_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75110-3_23

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-51759-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-75110-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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