This article will talk about one very strange bird, which, with its surprisingly unusual behavior, differs from other birds. This is a cuckoo known for laying its eggs or throwing them into the nests of other bird species.
It turns out that her chicks are being fed by completely different, "adoptive" parents. This behavior is called nest parasitism. Moreover, each of these birds throws its eggs into the nests of those species of birds that once fed it.
About their features, about which nests the cuckoo lays its eggs in and what its chicks are, what they eat, you can find out by reading this article. But first, let's give some general information about them.
Many people know that female cuckoos shift all the worries about their offspring onto other people's shoulders, if I may say so, limiting themselves to searching for ready-made alien nests and throwing their eggs into them.
Cuckoo chick what is the name? Cuckoo. That's about it and will be discussed in this article.
General information about the cuckoo
Different types of cuckoosdiffer in size. In most birds belonging to the cuckoo family, the weight barely reaches 100 grams, and the body length is no more than forty centimeters.
But all representatives of this family are characterized by the presence of a rather long tail, strong paws and a thin body. And the plumage, as a rule, does not differ in a particularly bright color. And sexual dimorphism in coloring is either poorly developed or absent altogether.
There are no cuckoos only in the Arctic and Antarctic. But in general, their distribution area is wide throughout the globe, they especially fell in love with warm countries. Some species that live in temperate latitudes are mostly migratory, while the rest are sedentary.
Description
Before we know what a cuckoo chick is, let's describe its parents.
The size of a cuckoo is slightly smaller than a dove. Males and most females have an ash-gray head and upper body. The underside has a striated color (“hawk” type). There are females that have a rusty-red coloring of the upper side of the body. The tail is quite long - it reaches 15-19 centimeters, and the wings grow up to 20-30 centimeters. In this regard, the cuckoo seems to be a large bird, especially in flight. It is actually small, weighing only 120 grams (maximum).
For more information about what a cuckoo chick is (see photo below), see the article below.
Cuckoos are considered to be medium-sized birds: the smallest species are only slightly larger than a sparrow, and the mostbig - like crows. They have a hard plumage that fits well to the body. But the fluff is rather weakly developed.
The elongated leg feathers of these birds form a kind of "trousers". The wings of most members of the family are long and sharp (there are only 10 primary primaries, the longest of which is the third).
The stepped long tail usually has 10 tail feathers. Cuckoos have short four-toed legs.
A young cuckoo (chick) differs from its old relatives in a more brown color of the upper body, as a rule, with rusty-red stripes transverse. The tail of the cuckoo has a white tip, while the red females have a dark stripe along the edge.
Sounds the male makes in the form of “cuckoo”, sometimes turning into muffled laughter. For females, the sonorous sound “kli-kli-kli” is characteristic. Usually the cuckoo calls no more than ten times in a row.
About varieties
The number of the entire order of cuckoos is approximately 150 species, united in 39 genera. They are divided into 2 suborders: real cuckoos, containing one family of cuckoos, and turacos, containing one family of turacos (or banana-eaters).
Most of the members of the family are shrubs and trees. Their life passes in the crown of bushes and trees. Among them there are species leading a terrestrial lifestyle. They build their nests on the ground.
Many cuckoos are monogamous. During the breeding season, they form pairs, build their own nests, incubate their eggs and feed their chicks.
About 50 species are polygamous, which clearlynest parasitism is expressed.
Often people ask the question: "Why does the cuckoo leave her chicks?" It turns out that this is typical only for polygamous cuckoos.
Habitats, lifestyle
This cuckoo nests on lands from England to Japan and Kamchatka, occupying almost the entire Russian territory from west to east. In the north, in the European part of the country, the distribution range of this bird reaches the Arctic Circle and even a little further. As for the southern part, in this region the cuckoos "crossed" the border of the state, reaching Asia Minor and North Africa.
The bird lives both in the tundra and in semi-deserts, having chosen bushes, forests and mountain dwarfs. It feeds on a variety of insects (helps in killing many hairy caterpillars that other birds do not normally eat). You can find out what the cuckoo chick eats below.
Nest parasitism
The main and interesting feature of the cuckoo is laying eggs in the nests of birds of other species. At the same time, all worries about incubation and subsequent feeding of offspring are shifted to “adoptive parents”. How does this happen? More on that later.
Cuckoos lay their eggs in other people's nests. And for this, the female occupies a certain area of \u200b\u200bthe territory, where she looks out for suitable bird houses. There are cuckoos that mainly use the nests of white wagtails, some - the nests of warblers, others - skates, etc. According to scientists, cuckoos are divided into peculiar “biological tribes”,adapted to parasitize certain species of small birds.
Almost all such members of the family live in the eastern hemisphere, and monogamous live in the western. The former, as you remember, do not form pairs: only one female and several males are found in one area, less often their ratio is reversed.
In parasitic species, the eggs are very small, they are slightly larger than the eggs of many small birds, to which their mother throws them into the nests. And in terms of shape and coloring, they are also very similar to the eggs of host birds or differ quite a bit.
Which nests do cuckoos lay their eggs in?
In the European part of Russia, these birds lay their eggs in the nests of several dozen species: to tiny kinglets, wrens, nightingales, swifts, etc. They also throw their "adoptees" to sparrows.
The types of cuckoos also differ in the number of eggs tossed. For example, a crested one leaves several eggs in one nest chosen by it, and an ordinary one leaves only one. And they do it in different ways. Some of them lay their eggs directly in the host's nest, while others lay on the ground, and then carry them in their beaks. It is parasitic species that lay 10-25 eggs in one season.
Features
Cuckoo eggs vary between species because females come from different hereditary lines. Each of them is associated with a certain type of host bird, so the eggs are laid in the appropriate color. There is another interesting point. A little grown cuckoo pushes other chicks out of the nest, parentswho continue to feed the foundling.
Depending on the region of habitat and host birds, cuckoos can be different. In the European part, these are primarily redstarts, wagtails, warblers and shrikes. Their breeding season is from May to July.
Cuckoo chick: photo, description
Cuckoos that have just come into the world are often outwardly similar to the chicks of the owners of the nest. And the voices of parasitic cuckoo chicks are usually similar to the voices of the cubs of the owners. Absolutely all cuckoo chicks are born blind and naked.
The embryo, warmed by a diligent mother hen, develops quite quickly. The cuckoo chick emerges from the egg after 12 days, that is, earlier than the chicks of most small birds. In growth, he quickly overtakes the children of foster parents.
Strangely, almost immediately after hatching (after 10-12 hours), the cuckoo has some special need to throw out various objects from the nest that touch its back (bare skin has many very sensitive nerve endings). If suddenly a warm egg with an already moving chick gets on the back of the foundling, the cuckoo, placing it in the sacral recess and holding it with its wings, crawls to the edge of the nest to throw it to the ground. He can do the same with little chicks.
Behaviors
In total, during the first 3-4 days of life, when a similar reflex is manifested in a chick, a cuckoo chick (adopted) throws out only about 10 eggs from the nest, or almost all the chicks of the owners. Usually, parents feed their cubs only in nests, so discarded babies die.
The entire brood of the host bird usually remains intact if the cuckoo tosses an egg into a nest with an already incubated clutch, because it begins to lag behind them in growth. Then it is very difficult for parents to feed so many mouths.
The cuckoo in the nest is completely silent. A little later, he begins, demanding food, squeaking loudly. And after leaving the nest, he squeaks, torturing his foster parents.
The picture looks very strange when two small birds, for example, flycatchers or warblers, are constantly fussing near a large cuckoo with a reddish plumage, already flying. in the photo below you can see what a cuckoo chick looks like, which is fed with all its might by birds of a different species.
The cuckoo opens its mouth so wide that it looks like it can swallow the bird along with the caterpillars. Often there is such a picture: a bird sits on the shoulders of a cuckoo and puts food into his mouth from above, and then again hurries for prey.
Cuckoo food
These birds feed exclusively on animal food. Usually prey is collected from bushes, trees, and a little less often from the ground. It happens that they catch insects on the fly in the air, for which their wide mouth is well adapted.
The diet of most cuckoo species is based on a variety of insects and their larvae. Less commonly, they eat other invertebrates (such as spiders).
There are species of cuckoos (mostly tropical) that feed on birdseggs and chicks, amphibians, small mammals and reptiles.
What do cuckoo chicks eat? Growing cuckoos are distinguished by amazing voracity. One case is known when a very young chick of this species, fed in a cage, ate 39 large green grasshoppers, 18 lizards, 3 butterfly pupae, 5 May beetle larvae, 43 cabbage caterpillars, 4 spiders, 50 flour worms and a large number of "eggs" per day.” ants.
Interesting facts
• The chick is very picky about feeding, so he persistently achieves his goal. It often happens that it is fed not only by "foster" parents, but also by other birds.
• The cuckoo has different similar names in other countries: the Bulgarians call it "kukovitsa", the word "kuku" is common in Romania, the Germans called it "kukukom", the Czechs - "kukachka", the French simply call it "kuku", and the Italians - "puppet".
• The cuckoo's coloration is basically the same as that of the sparrow hawk. Perhaps this is not accidental, because thanks to this, the cuckoo can easily drive away the hosts from the nest.
• Redstarts and warblers are the most common carers of cuckoo cubs.
Conclusion
Despite this feature of the described bird, it is considered useful. The only not very pleasant moment is that, throwing their eggs into other people's nests and causing the death of the owners' chicks in connection with this, the cuckoo does some harm, destroying insectivorous beneficial birds.
There are places where prettythere are many cuckoos, in connection with which it also happens that warblers do not breed a single chick during the summer. These are all the tricks of cuckoo mothers and the chicks themselves. In turn, this voracious bird during the summer exterminates a huge number of harmful caterpillars (for example, hairy ones), which are usually not touched by small birds. With such useful work, no doubt, the cuckoo covers the damage caused by its parasitism in the nests of other small birds.
