Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the physiology, ecology, and behavior of
hormones in avian eggs. The main source of hormones found in avian eggs is the maturing …

Physiological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds is the most current and comprehensive
account of research on avian reproduction. It develops two unique themes: the consideration …

Steroid hormones are important mediators of prenatal maternal effects in animals. Despite a
growing number of studies involving experimental manipulation of these hormones, little is …

The hormonal environment during early development, such as maternally derived
androgens in bird eggs, shapes the development and phenotype of the offspring in ways …

Despite the well‐known, long‐term, organizational actions of sex steroids on phenotypic
differences between the sexes, studies of maternal steroids in the vertebrate egg have …

Stressful environmental conditions can shape both an individual's phenotype and that of its
offspring. However, little is known about transgenerational effects of chronic (as opposed to …

Competition between conspecifics during the breeding season can result in behavioural and
physiological programming of offspring via maternal effects. For birds, in which maternal …

Recently, there has been much interest in the role of endogenous and maternal hormones
as regulators of offspring begging and mediators of parent–offspring conflict. Here, we …

Birds are a particularly good group with which to examine the importance of maternal effects,
as parental contributions can be relatively easily quantified compared with other groups …

1. Variation in the quality of the offspring environment can lead to the evolution of variable
offspring provisioning. For variable offspring provisioning to evolve, the magnitude of …