Data from: Does the house sparrow Passer domesticus represent a global model species for egg rejection behavior?

Conspecific brood parasitism (CP) is a facultative breeding tactic whereby females lay their eggs in the nests of conspecifics. In some species, potential host individuals have evolved the ability to identify and reject foreign eggs from their nest. Previous studies suggest that the ubiquitous House Sparrow Passer domesticus in Spain and South Africa employs both CP and parasitic egg rejection, while a population in China does not. Given the species’ invasive range expansions, the House Sparrow represents a potentially excellent global model system for egg rejection across variable ecological conditions. The present study examines House Sparrow responses to experimental parasitism at three geographically distinct locations (in Israel, North America, and New Zealand) to provide a robust test of how general the findings of the previous studies are. In all three geographic regions egg rejection rates were negligible and not statistically different from background rates of disappearance of control eggs, suggesting that the House Sparrow is not a suitable model species for egg rejection experiments on a global scale.种内巢寄生（Conspecific brood parasitism，CP）是一种兼性繁殖策略，指雌性个体将卵产于同种其他个体的巢内。在部分物种中，潜在宿主已演化出识别并移除巢内外来卵的能力。此前研究表明，广布的家麻雀（House Sparrow, Passer domesticus）在西班牙与南非的种群中同时存在种内巢寄生与寄生卵识别移除行为，但中国境内的种群则无该行为。鉴于该物种种群的入侵性扩散范围，家麻雀可作为跨多样生态条件下卵识别移除行为研究的优质全球模型体系。本研究针对以色列、北美与新西兰三个地理分隔的种群，检测家麻雀对实验性巢寄生的响应，以严谨验证此前研究结论的普适性。在上述三个地理区域中，家麻雀的卵识别移除率极低，且与对照卵的本底消失率无统计学差异，这表明家麻雀并不适合作为全球尺度下卵识别移除实验的模式物种。