Mode of development and interspecific avian brood parasitism

Avian interspecific brood parasites differ considerably in theircommitment to parasitism; 87 species are obligate brood parasites,whereas 35 species are known to be facultative brood parasites.This variation is strongly related to mode of development. Obligateparasitism is found almost exclusively in altricial species,whereas facultative interspecific parasitism is predominantin precocial birds. We propose that the association betweenmode of development and form of parasitism reflects a fundamentaldifference between altricial and precocial birds in the relativebenefits of emancipation from parental care after laying. Weargue that altricial brood parasites obtain such a large increasein realized fecundity by avoiding the costs of parental carethat obligate parasitism is favored over facultative parasitism.In contrast, precocial brood parasites gain relatively littlein terms of increased fecundity via obligate parasitism, andmuch of this increase could potentially be gained by facultativeparasitism. Thus, obligate interspecific brood parasitism willnot be favored in precocial birds. Three factors influence thisdifference between altricial and precocial species: (1) altricialbirds have relatively more energy and nutrients with which tolay additional eggs, (2) altricial birds can produce more eggsfor the same amount of energy and nutrients, and (3) altricialbirds realize a greater relative gain in fecundity for eachadditional egg laid. We suggest further that facultative interspecificparasitism in birds may originate simply through a carry overof intraspecific parasitism; 29 of 33 facultative interspecificparasites also parasitize conspecifics. Facultative parasitismof other species would provide a greater range of potentialhost nests and could be maintained as an evolutionarily stableend point by the same mechanisms that maintain intraspecificbrood parasitism. [Behav Ecol 1991;2:309–318]     

Relatedness and the evolution of conspecific brood parasitism: parameterizing a model with data for a precocial species

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) is a common reproductive tactic in several animal taxa, especially in precocial birds. It has been suggested that host-parasite relatedness can facilitate the evolution of CBP. A recent model showed that the existence and accuracy of the kin recognition system is crucial for this to occur. I used field data to parameterize the model for the common goldeneye, Bucephala clangula, a precocial species in which CBP frequently occurs and in which a recent finding of nonrandom host-parasite relatedness has been interpreted to support the idea that relatedness and kin selection influence CBP. It turned out that possibilities to detect brood parasitism and accurately discriminate between kin and nonkin parasites are negligible in the species. The empirically parameterized model exercise revealed that relatedness and kin selection are unlikely explanations of CBP in the species.     

The role of kin recognition in the evolution of conspecific brood parasitism

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) is a common strategy in several species of birds. Currently, some studies suggest that relatedness between host and parasite enhances CBP, since indirect fitness benefits could select for acceptance of related eggs by hosts. Conversely, parasites should avoid laying eggs in nests of relatives if this is costly for the host. Based on the latter argument, kinship should not promote brood parasitism. A recent model clarified this relationship, and showed that kinship can promote brood parasitism, assuming kin recognition. However, in that model kin recognition was assumed perfect. Here we present a model that addresses the role of relatedness and kin selection in CBP, when kin recognition is not perfect and hosts do not always detect parasitism. We consider both the indirect fitness of the parasite and the possible responses of the host. Our results indicate that the existence and accuracy of a kin recognition system is crucial to the final outcome. When CBP represents a cost to the host, a parasitic female that has the choice should avoid parasitizing relatives, unless (1) the costs are not too high and (2) hosts can accurately enough recognize eggs laid by relatives, rejecting them less often than eggs laid by nonkin. But if ‘parasitism’ enhances the direct fitness of the host (which is possible in species with precocial young) parasites should choose relatives whenever possible, even if hosts do not recognize kin eggs. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.     

Colony kin structure and host‐parasite relatedness in the barnacle goose

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP), females laying eggs in the nest of other ‘host’ females of the same species, is a common alternative reproductive tactic among birds. For hosts there are likely costs of incubating and rearing foreign offspring, but costs may be low in species with precocial chicks such as waterfowl, among which CBP is common. Waterfowl show strong female natal philopatry, and spatial relatedness among females may influence the evolution of CBP. Here we investigate fine‐scale kin structure in a Baltic colony of barnacle geese, Branta leucopsis, estimating female spatial relatedness using protein fingerprints of egg albumen, and testing the performance of this estimator in known mother‐daughter pairs. Relatedness was significantly higher between neighbour females (nesting ≤ 40 metres from each other) than between females nesting farther apart, but there was no further distance trend in relatedness. This pattern may be explained by earlier observations of females nesting close to their mother or brood sisters, even when far from the birth nest. Hosts and parasites were on average not more closely related than neighbour females. In 25 of 35 sampled parasitized nests, parasitic eggs were laid after the host female finished laying, too late to develop and hatch. Timely parasites, laying eggs in the host’s laying sequence, had similar relatedness to hosts as that between neighbours. Females laying late parasitic eggs tended to be less related to the host, but not significantly so. Our results suggest that CBP in barnacle geese might represent different tactical life‐history responses.     

The Evolution of Intraspecific Brood Parasitism in Birds and Insects

Many species of birds and insects engage in intraspecific brood parasitism (IBP), when a female lays eggs in the nest of a conspecific and leaves without providing parental care. These visiting females may also act to cooperate with a primary female, staying to provide parental care. Therefore, IBP and cooperative breeding can be considered extremes on a continuum of parental care provided by a secondary female. When a secondary female abandons a nest, she creates an asymmetry in parental care between herself and the host. While models of asymmetry in reproductive allocation have focused directly on relatedness between females, we lack an appropriate theoretical framework that addresses the effects of relatedness on parental care asymmetry. Here, I present an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) model that predicts the conditions under which IBP is favored over cooperation and solitary breeding. Intraspecific brood parasitism is less likely to evolve (relative to cooperation and solitary breeding) as the relatedness between a host and parasite increases. It can evolve, however, if parasites achieve a high overall fecundity relative to solitary females. Constraints on solitary breeding can further promote IBP under some circumstances. Cooperation is favored when relatedness is high and reproductive skew is low. This model makes several predictions regarding the conditions under which IBP may evolve, motivating a variety of experimental approaches.     

Can intraspecific brood parasitism be detected using egg morphology only?

Intraspecific brood parasites lay their eggs in the nests of conspecifics. There are a number of methods for detecting intraspecific brood parasitism (IBP) in birds based on egg morphology. Here we test Eadie's (1989) method, which calculates the Euclidean distances between eggs in a given clutch in a three-dimensional space (weight, length and width). A parasitised clutch is predicted to contain an egg (or eggs) that is significantly different from the clutch's other eggs. Data from three species were analysed. Our captive zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata clutches did not include any instances of IBP, the wild jackdaw Corvus monedula data were unlikely to contain any, and for the goldeneye Bucephala clangula data set we had an observational estimate of IBP. We simulated IBP in the zebra finch, jackdaw and goldeneye data to test whether the method reliably detects an experimentally 'parasitised' clutch. We show that the distributions of the test statistics greatly overlap in 'parasitised' and unmodified clutches, and are dependent on the clutch size. We therefore conclude that the method can only be used with caution, after calibrating it for a given population.     

Brood parasitism,female condition and clutch reduction in the common eider Somateria mollisima

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) is an alternative reproductive tactic found in many animals with parental care. Parasitizing females lay eggs in the nests of other females (hosts) of the same species, which incubate and raise both their own and the foreign offspring. The causes and consequences of CBP are debated. Using albumen fingerprinting of eggs for accurately detecting parasitism, we here analyse its relation to female condition and clutch size in High Arctic common eiders Somateria mollissima borealis. Among 166 clutches in a Svalbard colony, 31 (19%) contained eggs from more than one female, and 40 of 670 eggs (6%) were parasitic. In 6 cases an active nest with egg(s) was taken over by another female. Many suitable nest sites were unoccupied, indicating that CBP and nest takeover are reproductive tactics, not only consequences of nest site shortage. Similarity in body mass between female categories suggests that condition does not determine whether a nesting female becomes parasitised. There was no evidence of low condition in parasites: egg size was similar in hosts and parasites, and parasitism was equally frequent early and late in the laying season. Meta‐analysis of this and 3 other eider studies shows that there is a cost of being parasitised in this precocial species: host females laid on average 7% fewer eggs than other females.     

The evolution of obligate interspecific brood parasitism in birds

We present a simple analytical model to investigate the conditionsfor the evolution of obligate interspecific brood parasitismin birds, based on clutch size optimization, when birds canlay more eggs than their optimal clutch size. The results showthat once intraspecific parasitism has appeared (i.e., femalesstart to spread their eggs over their own and other nests) the evolutionarily stable number of eggs laid in its own nest decreases.Two possible ESSs exist: (1) either the evolutionarily stablenumber of eggs laid in its own nest is larger than zero, anda fraction of the total number of eggs is laid parasitically(i.e., intraspecific parasitism); and (2) either the evolutionarilystable number of eggs laid in its own nest is zero and all eggs are laid parasitically. Since all females lay parasitically,this could favor the evolution of obligate interspecific broodparasitism. The key parameter allowing the shift from intraspecificto obligate interspecific parasitism is the intensity of density-dependentmortality within broods (i.e., nestling competition). Strongnestling competition, as in altricial species, can lead toan ESS where all eggs are laid parasitically. Altricial speciesare, therefore, predicted to evolve more easily toward obligate interspecific parasitism than precocial species. These predictionsfit the observed distribution of brood parasitism in birds,where only one species out of 95 obligate interspecific parasitesexhibits a precocial mode of development. Different nestlingsurvival functions provided similar findings (i.e., obligatebrood parasitism is more likely to evolve in altricial species),suggesting that these results are robust with respect to themain assumption of the model.     

Egg patterning is not a reliable indicator of intraspecific brood parasitism in the blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus

A recent study reported the incidence of intraspecific brood parasitism (IBP) in the blue tit, based on differences in pigmentation between eggs within clutches and the appearance of multiple eggs within a nest in a single day. Here we present data from another population of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus in which we show that such evidence is not necessarily indicative of IBP. As in many other studies of birds, we found that the patterning and degree of pigmentation on eggs is individually highly characteristic of a female. As in the previous study of blue tits, a minority of clutches (about 3% of 904 clutches) contained one, two or three eggs that were distinctly different from the other eggs in the clutch, either in size or patterning, but not both. Molecular genetic analyses of parentage in a sample of these clutches with suspected IBP demonstrated unequivocally that all eggs within each clutch had in fact been laid by a single female, in all cases the social parent. We also found no evidence of IBP from paternity analyses of a sample of 3,529 offspring from 427 broods in this population, adding to previous evidence of the absence of IBP in this species. These findings cast doubt on the utility of purely observational approaches to provide evidence of intraspecific brood parasitism; our study suggests that egg morphology and records of laying patterns are inadequate to enable the identification of IBP.     

INTRASPECIFIC NEST PARASITISM IN BIRDS

(1) The incidence of intraspecific nest parasitism in birds is reviewed. This phenomenon can be identified by various methods, ranging from biochemical examination of protein and enzyme polymorphisms to observations on the sequence of appearance of eggs in the nest as well as on the shape and colour of the eggs. The phenomenon has been reported for at least 53 species (Table I), mostly among precocial birds.
(2) The evidence suggests that the parasites are ( a ) young, unmated birds, ( b ) females which have lost their nests and (c) mated females which also lay in the nests of other females. High proportions of such females, and scarcity of suitable nest sites increase the rate of parasitism.
(3) Breeding success in parasitized nests is reduced by factors such as egg loss, desertion, inefficient incubation, reduced clutch size and late layings. The upper limit of the rate of intraspecific parasitism is discussed. It is argued that its incidence will be higher in the tropics than in extreme zones, for example, high latitudes and deserts, because there is higher synchronization of breeding in the latter, and increased predation in the former zones. Also, it will be more common in species which lay large clutches, such as precocial species.     

Brood parasitism,relatedness and sociality: a kinship role in female reproductive tactics

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) is a reproductive tactic in which parasitic females lay eggs in nests of other females of the same species that then raise the joint brood. Parasites benefit by increased reproduction, without costs of parental care for the parasitic eggs. CBP occurs in many egg‐laying animals, among birds most often in species with large clutches and self‐feeding young: two major factors facilitating successful parasitism. CBP is particularly common in waterfowl (Anatidae), a group with female‐biased natal philopatry and locally related females. Theory suggests that relatedness between host and parasite can lead to inclusive fitness benefits for both, but if host costs are high, parasites should instead target unrelated females. Pairwise relatedness (r) in host–parasite (h‐p) pairs of females has been estimated using molecular genetic methods in seven waterfowl (10 studies). In many h‐p pairs, the two females were unrelated (with low r, near the local population mean). However, close relatives (r = 0.5) were over‐represented in h‐p pairs, which in all 10 studies had higher mean relatedness than other females. In one species where this was studied, h‐p relatedness was higher than between nesting close neighbours, and hosts parasitized by non‐relatives aggressively rejected other females. In another species, birth nest‐mates (mother–daughters, sisters) associated in the breeding area as adults, and became h‐p pairs more often than expected by chance. These and other results point to recognition of birth nest‐mates and perhaps other close relatives. For small to medium host clutch sizes, addition of a few parasitic eggs need not reduce host offspring success. Estimates in two species suggest that hosts can then gain inclusive fitness if parasitized by relatives. Other evidence of female cooperation is incubation by old eider Somateria mollissima females of clutches laid by their relatives, and merging and joint care of broods of young. Merging females tended to be more closely related. Eiders associate with kin in many situations, and in some geese and swans, related females may associate over many years. Recent genetic evidence shows that also New World quails (Odontophoridae) have female‐biased natal philopatry, CBP and brood merging, inviting further study and comparison with waterfowl. Kin‐related parasitism also occurs in some insects, with revealing parallels and differences compared to birds. In hemipteran bugs, receiving extra eggs is beneficial for hosts by diluting offspring predation. In eggplant lace bugs Gargaphia solani, host and parasite are closely related, and kin selection favours egg donation to related females. Further studies of kinship in CBP, brood merging and other contexts can test if some of these species are socially more advanced than presently known.     

Brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds and the expression of sexual characters in their hosts

Interspecific brood parasites may use the secondary sexual characters of the hosts to decide which species to parasitize. Hence, species with conspicuous and well-recognisable traits may have higher chances of becoming parasitised. Using North American birds and their frequent brood parasite, the brown-headed cowbird Molothrus ater, we tested the relationship between features of song and plumage coloration of hosts and the frequency of brood parasitism while controlling for several potentially confounding factors. Relying on two sets of analysis, we focused separately on the evolutionary view of the parasite and the host. From the cowbirds perspective, we found that males of heavily parasitized species posit songs with low syllable repertoire size, shorter inter-song interval and have brighter plumage. From the hosts perspective, a phylogenetic analysis revealed similar associations for features of song, but not for plumage characteristics that were unrelated to brood parasitism. These comparative findings may imply that brood parasites choose novel hosts based on heterospecific signals; and/or host species working against sexual selection escape from brood parasitism by evolving inconspicuous sexual signals. Although our data do not allow us to distinguish between these two evolutionary scenarios, our results suggest that selection factors mediating cowbird parasitism via host recognition by heterospecific signals may have an important role in the evolutionary relationship between brood parasites and their hosts.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

Sexual imprinting misguides species recognition in a facultative interspecific brood parasite

Sexual reproduction relies on the recognition of conspecifics for breeding. Most experiments in birds have implicated a critical role for early social learning in directing subsequent courtship behaviours and mating decisions. This classical view of avian sexual imprinting is challenged, however, by studies of megapodes and obligate brood parasites, species in which reliable recognition is achieved despite the lack of early experience with conspecifics. By rearing males with either conspecific or heterospecific brood mates, we experimentally tested the effect of early social experience on the association preferences and courtship behaviours of two sympatrically breeding ducks. We predicted that redheads (Aythya americana), which are facultative interspecific brood parasites, would show a diminished effect of early social environment on subsequent courtship preferences when compared with their host and congener, the canvasback (Aythya valisineria). Contrary to expectations, cross-fostered males of both species courted heterospecific females and preferred them in spatial association tests, whereas control males courted and associated with conspecific females. These results imply that ontogenetic constraints on species recognition may be a general impediment to the initial evolution of interspecific brood parasitism in birds. Under more natural conditions, a variety of mechanisms may mitigate or counteract the effects of early imprinting for redheads reared in canvasback broods.     

Dispersal ecology versus host specialization as determinants of ectoparasite distribution in brood parasitic indigobirds and their estrildid finch hosts

Brood parasitic birds offer a unique opportunity to examine the ecological and evolutionary determinants of host associations in avian feather lice (Phthiraptera). Brood parasitic behaviour effectively eliminates vertical transfer of lice between parasitic parents and offspring at the nest, while at the same time providing an opportunity for lice associated with the hosts of brood parasites to colonize the brood parasites as well. Thus, the biology of brood parasitism allows a test of the relative roles of host specialization and dispersal ecology in determining the host-parasite associations of birds and lice. If the opportunity for dispersal is the primary determinant of louse distributions, then brood parasites and their hosts should have similar louse faunas. In contrast, if host-specific adaptations limit colonization ability, lice associated with the hosts of brood parasites may be unable to persist on the brood parasites despite having an opportunity for colonization. We surveyed lice on four brood parasitic finch species (genus Vidua), their estrildid finch host species, and a few ploceid finches. While Brueelia lice were found on both parasitic and estrildid finches, a molecular phylogeny showed that lice infesting the two avian groups belong to two distinct clades within Brueelia. Likewise, distinct louse lineages within the amblyceran genus Myrsidea were found on estrildid finches and the parasitic pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macroura), respectively. Although common on estrildid finches, Myrsidea lice were entirely absent from the brood parasitic indigobirds. The distribution and relationships of louse species on brood parasitic finches and their hosts suggest that host-specific adaptations constrain the ability of lice to colonize new hosts, at least those that are distantly related.     

Conspecific brood parasitism and population dynamics

Conspecific brood parasitism (CBP), defined as parasitic laying of eggs in a conspecific nest without providing parental care, occurs in insects, fishes, amphibians, and many birds. Numerous factors have been proposed to influence the evolution of CBP, including nest site limitation; effects of brood size, laying order, or parasitic status on offspring survival; randomness of parasitic egg distribution; adult life-history trade-offs; and variation in parental female quality or risk of nest predation. However, few theoretical studies consider multiple possible types of parasitism or the interplay between evolution of parasitism and population dynamics. We review existing theory of CBP and develop a synthetic modeling approach to ask how best-of-a-bad job parasitism, separate-strategies parasitism (in which females either nest or parasitize), and joint-strategies parasitism (in which females can both nest and parasitize) differ in their evolutionary conditions and impacts on population dynamics using an adaptive dynamics framework including multivariate traits. CBP can either stabilize or destabilize population dynamics in different scenarios, and the role of comparable parameters on evolutionarily stable strategy parasitism rate, equilibrium population size, and population stability can differ for the different modes of parasitism.     

Why is mimicry in cuckoo eggs sometimes so poor?

I propose that the existence of imperfect adaptations (e.g. egg mimicry) in brood parasites and their hosts (e.g. discrimination abilities) could reflect age-dependent territory and nest-site selection patterns of the host. Studies of various passerines indicate that (1) older breeders tend to occupy nest sites of higher quality than do young birds (ideal despotic distribution resulting from interference competition), (2) nest-site selection affects the risk of parasitism in various habitats, (3) egg recognition in passerines has a strong learning component (therefore naive breeders tend to accept whereas older birds tend to reject parasitic eggs). Because young naive birds, who tend to accept parasitic eggs, usually breed in low-quality areas where they are frequently parasitised, while old experienced birds, who tend to reject parasitic eggs, breed in high-quality areas where they are rarely parasitised, the distribution of acceptors and rejecters with respect to the risk of parasitism is non-random, i.e. populations of some host species may consist of heavily parasitised acceptors and weakly parasitised rejecters. Therefore, the selection pressure exerted by the host on the parasite should be weaker than if brood parasitism was randomly distributed among naive and experienced breeders and affect adaptations such as egg mimicry. This could explain the existence of imperfect adaptations in some brood parasite-host systems.     

Conspecific brood parasitism and egg quality in blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus

Laying eggs in nests of unrelated conspecific pairs to parasitize their parental care is a common phenomenon in birds. In blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus such conspecific brood parasitism (CBP) has never been reported in the literature. However, in a situation where breeding density was extremely high, we found six nests to be parasitized with eggs of conspecific females. Natural selection may favour elevated competitiveness of parasite young, since the negative consequences of increased sibling competition are incurred on the unrelated host parents and siblings, and therefore do not act as inclusive fitness costs for the parasites. Parasitizing females could achieve such a competitive advantage for their offspring by laying larger eggs or eggs with higher concentrations of testosterone in the yolk. We analyzed these parameters of the six parasitized nests, but did not find that parasite eggs differ systematically in these aspects from host eggs, nor that parasite eggs showed resemblance to host eggs. We suggest that a shortage of available nest sites caused some females to use CBP as a best-of-a bad job strategy, but that either the occurrence of CBP is too rare to lead to strong selection for egg adjustments or that parasitizing females are unable to do so.     

Individual patterns of habitat and nest-site use by hosts promote transgenerational transmission of avian brood parasitism status

Brood parasitic birds impose variable fitness costs upon their hosts by causing the partial or complete loss of the hosts' own brood. Growing evidence from multiple avian host-parasite taxa indicates that exposure of individual hosts to parasitism is not necessarily random and varies with habitat use, nest-site selection, age or other phenotypic attributes. For instance, nonrandom patterns of brood parasitism had similar evolutionary consequences to those of limited horizontal transmission of parasites and pathogens across space and time and altered the dynamics of both population productivity and co-evolutionary interactions of hosts and parasites. We report that brood parasitism status of hosts of brown-headed cowbirds Molothrus ater is also transmitted across generations in individually colour-banded female prothonotary warblers Protonotaria citrea. Warbler daughters were more likely to share their mothers' parasitism status when showing natal philopatry at the scale of habitat patch. Females never bred in their natal nestboxes but daughters of parasitized mothers had shorter natal dispersal distances than daughters of nonparasitized mothers. Daughters of parasitized mothers were more likely to use nestboxes that had been parasitized by cowbirds in both the previous and current years. Although difficult to document in avian systems, different propensities of vertical transmission of parasitism status within host lineages will have critical implications both for the evolution of parasite tolerance in hosts and, if found to be mediated by lineages of parasites themselves, for the difference in virulence between such extremes as the nestmate-tolerant and nestmate-eliminator strategies of different avian brood parasite species.     

Egg morphology fails to identify nests parasitized by conspecifics in common pochard: a test based on protein fingerprinting and including female relatedness

Conspecific brood parasites lay eggs in nests of other females of the same species. A variety of methods have been developed and used to detect conspecific brood parasitism (CBP). Traditional methods may be inaccurate in detecting CBP and in revealing its true frequency. On the other hand more accurate molecular methods are expensive and time consuming. Eadie developed a method for revealing CBP based on differences in egg morphology. That method is based on Euclidean distances calculated for pairs of eggs within a clutch using standardized egg measurements (length, width and weight). We tested the applicability of this method in the common pochard Aythya ferina using nests that were identified as parasitized (39 nests) or non‐parasitized (16 nests) based on protein fingerprinting of eggs. We also analyzed whether we can distinguish between parasitic and host eggs in the nest. We found that variation in MED can be explained by parasitism but there was a huge overlap in MED between parasitized and non‐parasitized nests. MED also increased with clutch size. Using discriminant function analysis (DFA) we found that only 76.4% of nests were correctly assigned as parasitized or non‐parasitized and only 68.3% of eggs as parasitic or host eggs. Moreover we found that MED in parasitized nests increased with relatedness of the females that laid eggs in the nest. This finding was supported by positive correlation between MED and estimated relatedness in female–female pairs. Although variation in egg morphology is associated with CBP, it does not provide a reliable clue for distinguishing parasitized nests from non‐parasitized nests in common pochard.     

Insights on the taxonomy of Haemoproteus parasites infecting cracid birds

The Haemosporida order is a well-supported clade of heteroxenous parasites transmitted by dipteran insects and frequently found parasitizing wild birds. These parasites have already been reported in all zoogeographic regions of the world, except for Antarctica. One of the potential hosts of haemosporidians is the Cracidae family, which includes approximately 50 species, 22 of which are present in Brazil, classified within nine genera. Data on haemosporidian infecting individuals of the Cracidae family is scarce, with only three Haemoproteus species being recorded in this group of birds. We found Haemoproteus spp. infection in all Penelope obscura bronzina analyzed. Among the parasites found, we observed two lineages of Haemoproteus (PENOBS02 and PENOBS03), which were characterized by morphological, molecular and phylogenetic approaches. The morphological data on cracid haemosporidian parasites, together with our phylogenetic results, allows discussions on the taxonomy of the Haemoproteus parasites that infect birds of the Cracidae family.