Cameron Blair and Jonah Walker have joined the African Cuckoos team! Cameron previously did his BSc(Hons) project on the development of the guiding call of the greater honeyguide with the African Honeyguides team, and he has just started his MSc at the University of Cape Town, looking at how brood-parasitic honeyguide chicks are able to acoustically deceive their host parents. He is currently in the field assisting Tanmay Dixit with his work on cuckoo finches and their hosts. Jonah has also joined the team, working on the thermal properties of the eggs of cisticolas and prinias in Zambia, which are hosts of the cuckoo finch. This work will incorporate existing data and field studies in the 2022 rainy season. Welcome to both!
New paper on coevolution and chase-away evolution
Our paper “Chase-away evolution maintains imperfect mimicry in a brood parasite–host system despite rapid evolution of mimics” has been published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.