Data from: Effect of haemosporidian infections on host survival and recapture rate in the blue tit

Parasites are ubiquitous in the wild and by imposing fitness costs on
their hosts they constitute an important selection factor. One of the most
common parasites of wild birds are Plasmodium and Haemoproteus, protozoans
inhabiting the blood, which cause avian malaria and malaria-like disease,
respectively. Although they are expected to cause negative effects in
infected individuals, in many cases studies in natural populations failed
to detect such effect. Using data from seven breeding seasons (2008 -
2014), we applied a multistate capture – mark – recapture approach to
study the effect of infection with malaria and malaria-like parasites,
individual age and sex on the probability of survival and recapture rate
in a small passerine, the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), inhabiting the
island of Gotland, Sweden. We found no effect of infection on survival
prospects. However, the recapture rate of infected individuals was higher
than that of uninfected ones. Thus, while our data do not support the
presence of infection costs in terms of host survival, it suggests that
parasites from the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus may affect some
aspects of host behaviour, which translates into biased estimation of
infection frequency at the population level.