This is Bird Note.

Can birds tell who their relatives are?

Recently, researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Sweden tried to find out, but

first, a bit of background.

Female birds of some species try to save energy by tricking others of the same species into

incubating their eggs, they're known as brood parasites.

If a bird incubates the eggs of unrelated females, she has more babies to care for, but

gains no genetic benefits.

If the eggs are laid by a close relative, though, the host may gain by favoring the spread

of genes they share.

To try to discern whether birds can tell the difference, researchers filmed interactions

at 65 nests of the common eye to duck.

They recorded whether there were fights when a female other than the owner of a nest

tried to lay an egg there.

And it turns out that close relatives caused no aggression, but an unrelated female often

did cause conflict if she tried to lay an egg there.

So female iters appear to act differently toward close relatives.

Probably how they recognize them, though, remains unknown.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.

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