INFLUENCE OF BILL SHAPE ON ECTOPARASITE LOAD IN WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS
- 1 January 2002
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Ornithological Applications
Abstract
Populations of the Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) have bills specialized for feeding in their respective habitats. Populations in oak habitat have hooked bills, whereas those in pinyon habitat have pointed bills with a reduced maxillary overhang. Work on other bird species shows that the bill overhang is essential for efficient preening to con- trol ectoparasites. Given the importance of this over- hang, we predicted that louse-infested jays with point- ed bills would have higher louse loads than those with hooked bills. We compared the number of lice on 65 pointed-billed (4 infested) and 105 hooked-billed (17 infested) birds. Despite their lower incidence of louse infestation, pointed-billed birds had significantly more lice than hooked-billed birds, supporting our predic-Keywords
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