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DUSK Y WOODSWALLOWS Artamus cyanopterus COLLABORATE TO KLEPTOPARASITIZE A RESTLESS FLYCATCHER Myiagra inquieta


Kleptoparasitism in birds is typically considered the piracy of food from one bird by another. This is an account of collaborative kleptoparasitic attacks by Dusky Woodswallows (Artamus cyanopterus) on a Restless Flycatcher (Myiagra inquieta). The two woodswallows worked collaboratively to steal arthropod prey from the flycatcher with one woodswallow feeding the other with the stolen prey. The repetition of this collaborative behaviour indicates that the woodswallows targeted the flycatcher in a systematic theft and not simply as an opportunistic hunting or stealing attack.

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