This article will tell about one very strange bird, which differs from other birds in its surprisingly unusual behavior. This is the cuckoo, known for laying its eggs or tossing it into the nests of other bird species.
It turns out that the chicks are fed by completely alien, “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 itself.
You can find out about their features, about which cuckoo lays eggs in their nests and what their chicks are, what they feed on by reading this article. But first we give general information about them.
Many people know that all the worries about their offspring are laid by female cuckoos on the shoulders of others, if I may say so, confining ourselves to searching for ready-made foreign nests and tossing their eggs in them.
What is the name of the cuckoo chick? Little cuckoo. That's about him and will be discussed in this article.
General information about the cuckoo
Different types of cuckoos differ in size. In most birds belonging to the cuckoo family, the weight barely reaches 100 grams, and the body length is not more than forty centimeters.
But for all representatives of this family, the presence of a rather long tail, strong legs and a thin body is characteristic. And plumage, as a rule, does not differ in particularly bright colors. And sexual dimorphism in coloring is either poorly developed or completely absent.
There are no cuckoos only in the Arctic and Antarctic. But in general, their distribution area is wide across the globe, warm countries especially liked them. Some species living in temperate latitudes, most of them migratory, while others are sedentary.
Description
Before we learn what a cuckoo's chick is, we will describe his parents.
The cuckoo is a bit smaller than the pigeon. Males and most females have an ash-gray color of the head and top of the body. The bottom has a striated color (“hawkish” type). There are females that have a rusty red color on the upper side of the body. The tail is quite long - reaches 15-19 centimeters, and the wings grow to 20-30 centimeters. In this regard, the cuckoo seems to be a large bird, especially in flight. In fact, it is small, and its weight is only 120 grams (maximum).
More details about what a cuckoo's chick is (see photo below) can be found later in the article.
It is believed that cuckoos are medium-sized birds: the smallest species are only slightly larger than the sparrow, and the largest are like crows. They have a hard plumage, well adjacent to the body. But poorly developed fluff.
The elongated shin feathers in these birds form a kind of "pants". The wings of most members of the family are long and sharp (there are only 10 primary wings, the third of which is the longest).
A stepped long tail usually has 10 tail feathers. Four-toed cuckoo legs are short.
A young cuckoo (chick) differs from its old relatives by a browner coloration of the upper part of the body, as a rule, with rusty-red stripes transverse. The cuckoo has a tail with a white tip, while red females have a dark stripe along the edge.
The male makes sounds in the form of “cuckoo”, sometimes turning into a deaf laughter. For females, the sonorous sound of “Kli-Kli-Kli” is characteristic. Usually a cuckoo cuckoo no more than ten times in a row.
About varieties
The total number of cuckoos is approximately 150 species, uniting in 39 genera. They are divided into 2 suborders: real cuckoos, containing one family of cuckoos, and turuko, containing one family of turuko (or banana-eaters).
Most of the members of the family are shrubby and woody. Their life takes place in the crown of bushes and trees. Among them are species that lead a land-based lifestyle. They build their nests on the ground.
Many cuckoos are monogamous. During the breeding season, they form pairs, build nests themselves, incubate eggs and feed their chicks.
About 50 species are polygams, in which nest parasitism is clearly expressed.
Often people ask themselves: "Why is the cuckoo abandoning its 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 area of ​​this bird reaches the Arctic Circle and even a little further. As for the southern part, in this region the cuckoos "crossed" the state border, reaching Asia Minor and North Africa.
The bird lives in both the tundra and semi-deserts, having chosen shrubs, forests and mountain elfin. It feeds on a variety of insects (it helps in the destruction of many hairy caterpillars that other birds usually do not feed on). Find out what the cuckoo chick eats, below.
Nest parasitism
The main and interesting feature of the cuckoo is the laying of eggs in feathery nests of other species. At the same time, all concerns for incubating and subsequent feeding of offspring are transferred to the “adoptive parents”. How does this happen? About it further.
Cuckoos lay their eggs in other people's nests. And for this, the female occupies a certain area of ​​the territory, where she looks out for suitable bird houses. There are cuckoos who mainly use the nests of white wagtails, some use the nests of warblers, others use the 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 first ones, as you remember, do not form pairs: only one female and several males are found in one section, less often their ratio is the opposite.
In parasitic species, 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 shape with color, they are also very similar to the eggs of the host birds or are very slightly different.
What nests does the cuckoo lay eggs in?
In the European part of Russia, these birds throw eggs into the nests of several dozens of species: to tiny kings, wrens, nightingales, swifts, etc. Throw "adoptive" and to sparrows.
Different types of cuckoos differ in the number of tossed eggs. For example, a crested one leaves several eggs in one nest chosen by her, while an ordinary one leaves only one. And they do it differently. Some of them lay their eggs directly in the host’s nest, while others lay them on the ground, and then they transfer them in their beaks. In one season, it is parasitic species that lay 10-25 eggs each.
Features
Cuckoo eggs differ in all species, because the females belong to different hereditary lines. Each of them is associated with a particular species of host bird, so the eggs are laid correspondingly. There is another interesting point. A slightly grown cuckoo from the nest pushes other chicks, whose parents continue to feed the foundling.
Depending on the region of residence, the host birds in cuckoos may be different. In the European part, this is primarily the redstart, wagtail, warbler and shrike. Their breeding time is from May to July.
Cuckoo nestling: photo, description
Freshly born cuckoos are often outwardly similar to nestling hosts. And the voices of the parasitic cuckoo chicks are usually similar to the voices of the young hosts. Chicks of absolutely all cuckoos are born blind and naked.
The embryo, warmed by a diligent brood hen, develops rather quickly. The cuckoo's chick leaves the egg after 12 days, that is, earlier than the chicks of most small birds. In growth, he quickly overtakes native children of adoptive parents.
In a strange way, almost immediately after hatching (after 10-12 hours), the cuckoo has some kind of special need to throw various objects out of the nest that touch its back (naked skin has many very sensitive nerve endings). If suddenly a warm testicle with an already moving chick gets on the back of the foundling, the cuckoo, placing it in the sacral groove and holding with its wings, crawls to the edge of the nest to throw it to the ground. He can do the same with little chicks.
Habits
In total, during the first 3-4 days of life, when a similar reflex manifests itself in a chick, a cuckoo chick (foster baby) throws out about 10 eggs, or almost all of the host chicks, from the nest. Usually, their parents feed their youngs only in the nests, so the discarded babies die.
The whole brood of the host bird usually remains intact if the cuckoo tosses an egg into a nest with already hatched clutch, because it begins to lag behind them in growth. Then it is very difficult for parents to feed so many mouths.
The little cuckoo in the nest is completely silent. A little later, he begins, demanding food, to squeak loudly. And after flying out of the nest, he beeps, tormenting his adoptive parents.
The picture looks very strange when two small birds, such as a flycatcher or scum, are constantly bustling near a large, with a reddish plumage, already flying cuckoo. In the photo below you can see how a cuckoo nestling looks like, which is fed with all its might by birds of a different species.
The cuckoo opens its mouth so wide that it feels 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 from above pokes feed into his mouth, and then again hurries to catch prey.
Cuckoo food
These birds feed exclusively on animal food. Usually, mining 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 basis of nutrition for most species of cuckoos are a variety of insects and their larvae. Less commonly, they eat other invertebrates (for example, spiders).
There are species of cuckoos (mostly tropical) feeding on bird eggs and chicks, amphibians, small mammals and reptiles.
What do cuckoo chicks eat? Young cuckoos are amazingly voracious. 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 larvae of the May beetle, 43 cabbage caterpillars, 4 spiders, 50 flour worms and a large number of “eggs” per day ”Ants.
Interesting Facts
• The chick is very demanding on feeding, so she persistently strives for her. It often happens that not only "adoptive" parents feed him, but also other birds.
• The cuckoo has different similar names in other countries: the Bulgarians call it “cuckoo”, the word “cuckoo” is widespread in Romania, the Germans called it “cuckoo”, the Czechs call it “cuckoo”, the French simply call it “cuckoo,” and Italians call it “ cucolo. "
• The color of the cuckoo is mainly the same as that of the hawk. Perhaps this is not accidental, because thanks to this, the cuckoo can easily drive away the hosts from the nest.
• Red-tailed and warblers most often become the educators of cuckoo cubs.
Conclusion
Despite this feature of the described bird, it is considered useful. The only not very pleasant moment is that, tossing their eggs into someone else’s nests and causing the death of their hosts, the cuckoo does some harm, destroying useful carnivorous birds.
There are places where quite a lot of cuckoos live, and therefore it happens that warblers during the summer do not breed any of their chicks. This is all the tricks of mothers of cuckoos and the chicks themselves. In turn, this gluttonous bird during the summer exterminates a huge number of harmful caterpillars (for example, hairy), which are usually not touched by small birds. With such useful work, no doubt, the cuckoo covers the harm caused by its parasitism in the nests of other small birds.