Egg Discrimination and Egg-Color Variability in the Northern Masked Weaver

• Main Author: Jackson, Wendy M
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1998
• Subjects: Common Murre; Uria aalge; uria
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195099768.003.0022; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52413877/isbn-9780195099768-book-part-22.pdf

Abstract Many species of the Ploceus weaverbirds of Africa and Asia exhibit a dramatic degree of intraspecific egg-color variability (Mackworth-Praed and Grant 1955; Moreau 1960; Freeman 1988; W. Jackson, pers. obs.). Within a species, eggs can range from white to blue to brown and can be immaculate or have various types of speckling. Freeman (1988) reported variable eggs in 16 of the 34 Ploceus species whose eggs he examined in collections. These species differ from most species of birds, in which one egg looks very much like any other egg of that species and which typically show variability only in the speckling pattern. Even those birds that have been noted for their variable eggs, such as the common murre (Uria aalge), arguably do not compare with the weaverbirds in this regard.