Critique of Helping Behavior in Birds: A Departure from Functional Explanations

Abstract

Helping, defined here as the activity of feeding young by birds that are not of parent-offspring relatedness, is generally perceived as a unique behavior that has evolved only in individuals that live in communally breeding groups. Under the assumption that helping has evolved by the process of natural selection, current research is directed primarily at investigating the functional adaptiveness of helping behavior, especially in terms of its consequence on direct or indirect fitness. We argue that this solely functional approach restricts the perception of behavior associated with communal breeders as well as our understanding of how such behavior persists within certain populations.