What does a cuckoo look like. What does the common cuckoo eat

Cuckoos (or cuckoos) form a family of birds belonging to the order Cuckoo-like. The common cuckoo is the best known member of this family.

Different types of cuckoos have different size. In most species belonging to the cuckoo family, the weight barely reaches one hundred grams, and the body length does not exceed forty centimeters.

However, all representatives of this family are characterized by the presence of a long tail, a thin body and strong legs. Plumage, as a rule, does not have bright color, sexual dimorphism in coloration is poorly developed or absent altogether.

Cuckoos inhabit forests, but some individuals prefer open areas. The diet of a significant number of species consists mainly of insects. The number of species in the family reaches one hundred and forty, all of them are combined into six subfamilies: true cuckoos, spur cuckoos, Madagascar cuckoos, running cuckoos, larval-eating cuckoos and variegated cuckoos.

The cuckoo family includes species - the American cuckoo, claw cuckoo, plantain cuckoo. Their representatives build their nests in bushes or trees, and even small vertebrates, such as lizards, are included in the diet of these tropical cuckoos.

The life expectancy of cuckoos in their natural conditions ranges from five to ten years.

The Common Cuckoo is a medium sized bird. The body length of an ordinary cuckoo reaches forty centimeters, and the wing length is approximately twenty-two centimeters (wingspan - sixty centimeters). Individuals of this species have long flight wings and a long stepped tail (its length reaches eighteen centimeters). The common cuckoo is outwardly (in size and color) similar to the sparrowhawk.

Sexual dimorphism in common cuckoos is not expressed. On the contrary, it is very pronounced. In coloration, adult females differ significantly from adult males. The plumage coloration of adult males is dark gray on the tail and back, and light gray on the chest, crop and throat. As for the rest of the plumage, it has White color with pronounced dark transverse stripes. As for females, their plumage color from above has either rusty-red or brownish shades. Juveniles have either a reddish or grayish plumage color, regardless of gender. In size, the female differs slightly from the male, the body weight of adults varies from one hundred to one hundred and twenty grams.

The common cuckoo has a wide distribution area. The nesting places of the common cuckoo include European territories, Asia, and Africa. The common cuckoo can be found even in the Arctic Circle. But the territories of the southern half of Indochina, as well as the Hindustan and Arabian peninsulas, are not a nesting place for the common cuckoo. The common cuckoo, which lays eggs in the nests of passerines, can be seen in the forest-steppe and steppe, in forests and taiga, near water bodies, in parks and gardens, along the outskirts of deserts and high in the mountains.

The common cuckoo is a migratory bird. In a significant part of the distribution area, this is indeed the case. The common cuckoo winters in southern and tropical Africa. Much less often, individuals of this species fly away to spend the winter in the southern provinces of China, Indochina, Ceylon, India and the southern regions of the Arabian Peninsula. As for individuals nesting directly in South and tropical Africa, they are characterized by a sedentary lifestyle. An interesting fact is that with the onset of spring, cuckoos immediately leave their wintering grounds, for example, those individuals that nest in European territories fly away from Africa right in the first days of March. However, these birds reach the nesting sites very slowly (during one day the cuckoo flies about eighty kilometers), the first cuckoos arrive in the central regions of Europe only in the last days of April. The northern borders of the cuckoo's distribution area are reached only with the end of spring.

The substitution of the host egg for the cuckoo egg can be easily detected. This is not true. This happens extremely rarely. The development of embryos in cuckoo eggs requires approximately twelve to thirteen days, which is much faster than the development of embryos in host eggs. The cuckoo chicks that were born are often outwardly similar (and not only outwardly, but, for example, even in voice) to the rest of the chicks in the nest. By arching its back, a cuckoo chick can easily throw newborn chicks or eggs out of the nest. Moreover, he constantly requires food and, accordingly, grows rapidly (already on the twentieth - twenty-second day, the cuckoo leaves the nest, its size is almost three times larger than the size of its parents). For two to three weeks, the parents roam with the cuckoo through forest plantations and parks. The radius of such movements is two to three kilometers from the nest.

The cuckoo does damage environment destroying nests. However, there are benefits too. The cuckoo destroys a variety of insects that are harmful to the forest. We are talking, for example, about pine silkworms and shaggy oak caterpillars. These insects are not eaten by small songbirds. The reason lies in their digestive system. These insect pests are included in the diet of the common cuckoo.

The deaf cuckoo is similar to the common cuckoo. Just a little smaller in size. The common cuckoo and the deaf cuckoo are the closest relatives. The body length of the male deaf cuckoo reaches thirty-five centimeters. The deaf cuckoo leads mostly migratory image life, lives mainly in coniferous forests, but you can also see it in groves. It feeds on plant seeds and small insects.

The Indian cuckoo is a common bird in Primorye. This was true even in the second half of the twentieth century. At present, it is quite rare here. The distribution range of the Indian cuckoo in the territory Russian Federation covers the broad-leaved forests of the Amur region. The wintering ground for the Indian cuckoo is Southeast Asia. Interestingly, individuals of the Indian cuckoo also have a similar appearance to individuals of the common cuckoo. Distinctive feature are a two-color beak and the presence of a wide pre-apical stripe of black color.

Caution is characteristic of the Indian cuckoo. This is a very secretive bird, which makes it very difficult to observe it. This circumstance was the reason that researchers had a meager amount of knowledge about this bird for a long period of time. Even in the middle of the twentieth century, the eggs of the Indian cuckoo found in the nests of the Siberian shrike were mistaken for the eggs of the common cuckoo. As for the Siberian Shrike, today it is the only host species known on the territory of the Russian Federation. The laying of eggs of the Siberian shrike contains from five to eight eggs, to which one more egg of the Indian cuckoo is often added. Outwardly, it is similar to the rest of the eggs in the nest, it differs in slightly larger sizes.

The little cuckoo has small size. Indeed, its weight barely reaches sixty grams. By weight, the small cuckoo is inferior even to the starling, but it wins, in comparison with it, in size - largely due to the elongated tail and long flight feathers.

The little cuckoo is similar to the deaf cuckoo. They are united by the color of the plumage, as well as common parent species. The latter include chiffchaff. Particularly interesting is the little cuckoo and its host species in the vicinity of the village of Khasan (the little cuckoo lives in South Primorye, and winters in Southeast Asia). The teacher is a short-winged warbler, which is in many ways original. At least the fact that the female of the short-winged warbler is almost twice as small as the male is surprising. Polygyny is characteristic of both the short-winged warbler and the little cuckoo. The short-winged warbler builds rather large nests that have a lateral exit. In one season, the female of the small cuckoo throws one (or two) eggs into such nests, from which a chick appears on about the twelfth day. The cuckoo does not waste time and soon remains alone in the nest - it simply throws out the chicks that have already been born or the eggs in it from the nest. After about two weeks, the cuckoo flies out of the nest.

The broad-winged cuckoo has an extensive distribution area. We are talking about the area of ​​distribution of individuals of this species in the Far East of the Russian Federation. The broad-winged cuckoo can be found in the south of the Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye. However, despite this circumstance, ornithologists have much less information about the biology of reproduction of the broad-winged cuckoo, compared to other species belonging to the cuckoo family and found in Russia. Yuri Pukinsky (a researcher of Primorye, a famous ornithologist), for example, called the broad-winged cuckoo a mystery bird, because it is extremely difficult to track down this bird or find its eggs. But the voice of the broad-winged cuckoo is heard throughout the taiga. The voice of the male resembles a buzzing, which is extended in time and increases in volume and tone. The voice of the female resembles the voice of the male, differs in tone (lower) and duration (short).

For the broad-winged cuckoo, the main species-educator is the blue nightingale. This circumstance makes it very difficult to search for and study the eggs of the broad-nosed cuckoo. The fact is that the nests of the blue nightingale are on the ground. It is extremely difficult for a person to find them in the taiga wilderness. For the first time, the egg of the broad-winged cuckoo was fortunate enough to be seen only in 1970, but even then it was mistaken for the egg of the ubiquitous common cuckoo. It was discovered by ornithologist Yuri Shibnev in the nest of the blue flycatcher. A week after that, from the noticed (larger than all the others) eggs, the cuckoo itself was born. The blue flycatcher is another host species for this cuckoo.

The egg of the broad-winged cuckoo is large. This is true. It exceeds the size of the eggs of all other representatives of the cuckoo family inhabiting the territory of the Russian Federation. As for the color of the shell, it is similar to the color of the eggs of the host species of the broad-winged cuckoo - the blue nightingale. The color of the shell is bluish-green, light. With the shell of the eggs of another host species - the blue flycatcher - the eggs of the cuckoo have brownish spots in common. However, in this case, the egg of the broad-winged cuckoo differs markedly from the host eggs. Although this does not prevent the blue flycatcher from carefully incubating an unusual egg and feeding a chick that is not its own. The eggs of the broad-winged cuckoo are oval-ellipsoid in shape.

The crested cuckoo is a beautiful bird. Her appearance is somewhat similar to appearance magpies. The gray-steel color is characteristic of the uppertail and head of the crested cuckoo, the brownish-gray color of the dorsal side of the body is decorated with white spots on the wings and shoulders. Sexual dimorphism in coloration is very poorly developed. A distinctive feature of the male is the presence of a crest on the head, which is quite large. The female also has a crest, but it is almost invisible. The body length of the crested cuckoo is approximately forty centimeters, the wings are twenty centimeters. The weight of individuals ranges from one hundred thirty to one hundred and forty grams. During the summer, the female lays twelve to fifteen eggs, which are quite large. Each egg weighs about twelve grams, and this is with the female weighing one hundred and thirty grams. Eggs are thrown mainly into the nests of raven birds. As a rule, from two to four eggs are laid in one nest, which are very similar in size and color to the eggs of raven birds. The diet of the crested cuckoo consists mainly of large insects and their larvae.

The crested cuckoo is a migratory bird. Depending on where the representatives of this species live. The distribution range of the crested cuckoo covers the territories of Northwest, South and tropical Africa, Western Asia, Greece, France and the Iberian Peninsula. Only individuals living in South Africa lead a sedentary lifestyle. Tropical and South Africa has become a wintering ground for the crested cuckoo.

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Detachment cuckoo- Cuculiformes, Family Cuckoo - Cuculidae, Genus Cuckoos - Cuculus

Description of Buturlin. Since childhood, each of us has known the call of an inconspicuous gray bird, this sound “dull and simple”, repeating so monotonously and yet so attractive. In the spring noise of the forest, in the ringing chorus of small birds, the cuckoo seems to weave its own special musical pattern, a little sad and dreamy. This bird is mentioned more often than many others in folk songs, beliefs and fairy tales, its melody is often used in romances and symphonies by composers of many nations.
“The green forest around is young and dewy, and there is silence in the forest; and in the midst of silence - only the voice of the cuckoo. The vociferous bastard! Respond, will I live to see a new spring?
In the old proverbs of the Russian peasantry, the cuckoo, with its melancholy singing, was the embodiment of grief and sadness: “The cuckoo cuckoos - it tells grief”, “Not the cuckoo cuckoo, but the wife is grieving.” This bird is also mentioned in other proverbs, which speaks of its great popularity: “I exchanged a cuckoo for a hawk”, “You can’t hatch chickens on cuckoo eggs”, “The cuckoo does not cuckle on St. Peter’s Day”, and so on.
By voice, the cuckoo is familiar to everyone, but few have seen it and know it by appearance: the cuckoo is quite careful, and often it is not possible to approach it closer than 50-80 meters. But there is one good remedy, which helps to get to know this bird better: by imitating the cuckoo, you can lure almost every screaming male towards you. To do this, you need to learn how to shout out a low, throaty, but loud “oo-oo” (almost without “k”), as the cuckoo does, which is not at all difficult for people who have even a small ear for music.
Hearing the cry of an opponent, the male cuckoo immediately flies to his call, hoping to find a female near him. There are fewer female cuckoos than males, so there is always a strong enmity between the latter. In an easy flight, spreading its tail half-spread like a fan in the air, almost without flapping its wings, the cuckoo rushes through the trees, dodging the skates chasing it. She sat on the top of a birch, lifted her tail, dangled her wings, threw back her head, puffed out the gray feathers of her goiter - and now a loud hoarse “cuckoo” was now heard very close to you. You cackle again, encouraging her, she falls silent, then answers with some cooing “ur-ur ...” and with a loud laughing cry flies even closer. Now her yellow legs and wide yellow mouth are perfectly visible, from which this strong, less pleasant cry breaks out; a gray transverse pattern on the abdomen and light spots on the feathers of a light mobile tail are visible. The cuckoo turns to the right and to the left, at times bends down when angry flycatchers swoop in, and again caws without respite. Sometimes, excited by the voice of an elusive rival, she doubles the first syllable of the cry: “ko-ko-ku, ko-ko-ku ...”, the rumbling breaks from the tree and floats low over the bushes, then returns to the old place, and again in the quiet boro, without stopping, her song is buzzing. Often in the spring, walking through the forest, I managed to lead two or three cuckoos along for several kilometers, beckoning them with a cry. But as soon as the ringing, cheerful trill “kli-kli-kli-kli-kli-kli ...” was heard on the side of the road, which the female calls the male behind her, my “guides” fell behind, and I continued to walk alone.
V middle lane European part of Russia cuckoo arrives late April or early May. First, only males appear, and after a week or two, females join them. At the time of the arrival of the males, the forest is not yet dressed in foliage, there are often cold nights - the cuckoos are silent. But in warm weather, they begin to cuckoo immediately upon arrival. In the spring, hunters waiting for wood grouses on the currents often hear the call at night in complete darkness and the predawn silence of the forest. It then sounds somehow especially solemn and beautiful. At the height of spring, the cuckoo screams almost around the clock - to the point of hoarseness, longer and harder than many forest birds sing. By the end of July, in the middle lane, the kukovanie stops completely and resumes only in the next spring.
The cuckoo is very unpretentious in the choice of summer habitats - it meets and in coniferous and deciduous forests, in a strip of crooked forest-tundra, in small steppe forests and ravines overgrown with bushes, high in tori on the border of forests, and even along reeds near lakes, if there are many warblers there. For her, the features of the forest are not as important as the abundance of insectivorous birds, to which she throws her eggs. She avoids dense coniferous forests because there are few insectivorous birds in them; here it is replaced by a smaller deaf cuckoo.
One of the most interesting features cuckoo biology - “ nest parasitism”, laying eggs in other people's nests, in which all cares for incubation and feeding of the chick are performed by “foster parents”. This remarkable feature of the life of cuckoos was already known to the ancient Greeks, but only in recent decades have particularly valuable observations been collected on it. Each female cuckoo occupies a certain area on which she looks out for nests of birds. At the same time, some cuckoos use, for example, the nests of only white wagtails, others - only skates, others - warblers; scientists believe that all cuckoos are divided into special "biological tribes", each of which has adapted to parasitize certain "hosts" - species of small birds. In Europe, cuckoos toss their eggs to several dozen species, ranging from tiny kinglets and wrens to nightingales and swifts, but of this number, only twenty species suffer from parasitism especially strongly.
The cuckoo's egg begins to mature after it finds a nest in a selected bird species during construction. The egg stays in the oviduct for four to five days; during this time, the birds have time to finish the construction. The cuckoo lays eggs during the day (unlike most other species), which helps her to seize the moment when the owners of the nest are absent. She lays an egg either directly in the nest or on the ground and then transfers it in her mouth to the pre-noticed nesting site of the host birds. Each cuckoo lays from 9 to 15 eggs (sometimes over 20), with fairly large intervals, so that young cuckoos can be found in different dates summer. Cuckoo eggs, in comparison with its size, are very small and approach the eggs of host birds in size. They are very variable in color, moreover, each female lays eggs of only a certain color. One is blue, throwing them into nests with eggs of the same color, the other is gray, the third is spotted. For example, in the nest of a garden warbler, a grayish testicle of this bird 23.6 mm long and a grayish cuckoo egg - 23.3 mm were found (in the Moscow region); there are three brownish testicles of this species and one brownish testicle of a cuckoo, which specialized in parasitism in skates, in the nest of the skate. But there are often exceptions, when, for example, a blue cuckoo egg appears in the nest of a horse or warbler.
The cuckoo does not disturb the birds that feed their chicks with grains (hawk-nosed, greenfinch), but sometimes it makes the mistake of throwing eggs to tits in too narrow hollows, from where its large chick cannot get out and must die.
Searching for other people's nests and throwing their eggs into them (usually but one, less often two) are limited to all the cares of the female cuckoo about offspring. The embryo warmed by the mother hen develops very quickly: cuckoo comes out of the egg after twelve and a half days of incubation, that is, a little earlier than the chicks of most of our small birds hatch. The cuckoo outruns the chicks of foster parents in growth; it is of great importance in his life. Ten to twelve hours after hatching from the egg, he begins to develop a special need to throw out various objects that touch his back from the nest (the cuckoo has many sensitive nerve endings in the bare skin of the back). A warm egg will fall on its back, in which a chick is already stirring, - the cuckoo will place it in a recess on the sacrum and, holding it with its wings, will crawl to the edge of the nest. Here, rising on his legs, resting his head against the nest, a naked, blind robber throws an egg to the ground with a sharp push. So he does with little chicks. During the first three or four days of life, when this reflex is expressed in the cuckoo, the foster chick manages to throw out all 5-10 eggs or chicks of its owners from the nest. Birds feed small chicks only in the nest, so all discarded cubs die.
If the cuckoo lays an egg in a nest with a hatched clutch and the cuckoo stuns somewhat, then most of the chicks or the entire brood remain intact. It takes a lot of work for parents to feed such a family.
The cuckoo stays in the nest for about twenty days. At first he is completely silent, later he begins to squeak loudly, continuously demanding food. He also squeaks after leaving the nest, using the work of foster parents for two or three weeks. It is strange to see a large, in reddish plumage, well-flying cuckoo, around which two tiny warblers or flycatchers tirelessly fuss. The cuckoo is several times their height, it opens its mouth so wide that it seems that it is about to swallow the bird along with the caterpillars it has brought. It is difficult for a poor chiffchaff to reach with its beak the wide throat of its insatiable pet, so it surpasses it in growth. Sometimes you can see how the bird sits on the shoulders of the cuckoo and hurriedly pushes food from above, hurrying for new prey.
The voracity of the growing cuckoo is very great. A case is known when a young bird of this species, fed in a cage, ate 18 lizards, 39 large green grasshoppers, 3 dead head butterfly pupae, 43 cabbage caterpillars, 5 cockchafer larvae, 4 cross spiders, 50 flour worms and a considerable number of ant "eggs".

Cuckoos (lat. Cuculus) - one of the very widely represented, the central genus of birds from the Cuckoo family. Birds from the Cuckoo-like order have spread throughout the entire eastern hemisphere, but the greatest diversity is known in the Asian tropics.

Description of the cuckoo

The numerous family includes more than a hundred species, but perhaps the most famous representative is the common cuckoo, whose external characteristics are known almost everywhere.

Appearance

The body length of an adult bird is 35-38 cm, and the tail is no more than 13-18 cm. The maximum wingspan is within 50-55 cm. The body weight of an adult male is no more than 130 g. The bird has short and fairly strong legs.. The external characteristics of adult males and females differ markedly. The male has a dark gray tail and back. The region of the throat and chest to the abdomen is distinguished by a light gray coloration. On other parts of the body, the plumage is light, with the presence of dark stripes. Beak dark color, and the legs are yellow.

It is interesting! Cuckoos molt a couple of times a year, while partial molting occurs in the summer, and a full-fledged process is observed only in winter.

The plumage of the female is distinguished by the predominance of reddish and brown shades. The area of ​​the back and head is crossed by black stripes. All feathered feathers have a clearly visible white edging. The chest is light in color, with distinct and wide white, as well as narrow black stripes. The weight of an adult female, as a rule, does not exceed 110 g. Young individuals are predominantly pale red in color with dark stripes along the entire length of the body.

Lifestyle and behavior

Cuckoos are secretive and very cautious birds, leaving practically no traces of their activities. Despite the fact that the cuckoo is able to loudly notify everyone of its presence, it absolutely does not allow people to conduct any kind of surveillance. Representatives of the Cuckoo family are absolutely not adapted to movement on the ground, therefore, after descending for prey, such birds rush to fly back as quickly as possible.

Clumsiness when walking on the ground is due to two-toed feet, which allow birds to alternate steps with jumps. Thus, the required distance is exactly skipped by birds and paw marks in this case practically do not remain.

It is interesting! The flight of an adult cuckoo is light and rather swift, in its nature strongly reminiscent of the flight of a falcon and many other representatives of hawk birds.

Cuckoos prefer to live apart, and the desire to create pairs arises only during the mating season. The territorial area of ​​each bird is commensurate with its age characteristics, but the male may well “cede” part of his “possessions” to the female.

How long do cuckoos live

Among the indicators of the life expectancy of birds, a certain pattern can be traced. As a rule, the largest birds live much longer than individuals with small sizes. According to many observations, the life expectancy of representatives of the Cuckoo family is no more than ten years, but under favorable conditions, cuckoos can live much longer.

Types of cuckoos

The most common species from the Cuckoo family are represented by:

• Great hawk cuckoo (Cuculus sparverioides);
• Indian hawk cuckoo (Сuсulus varius);
• bearded cuckoo (Cuculus vagans);
• Broad-winged cuckoo (Cusulus fugax);
• Philippine cuckoo (Cuculus restoralis);
• Indonesian hawk cuckoo (Сuсulus сrassirostris);
• Red-breasted cuckoo (Сuсulus solitarius);
• Black cuckoo (Cuculus clamosus);
• Indian cuckoo (Сuсulus miсrorterus);
• Common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus);
• African common cuckoo (Сuсulus gularis);
• Deaf cuckoo (Сuсulus ortatus);
• Malay-Sonda cuckoo (Сuсulus leridus);
• Lesser cuckoo (Cuculus poliocerhalus);
• Madagascar little cuckoo (Cuculus rochii).

Transitional varieties: capable of raising chicks on their own or throwing eggs to other birds, rearing offspring and occupying other people's nests, throwing chicks and helping foster parents raise offspring.

Range, habitats

The traditional range and habitats of the cuckoo depend on the species characteristics of the representatives of the Cuckoo family. For example, the Great Hawk Cuckoo is found in the evergreen montane forests of India, Nepal, Sumatra and Borneo, while the Indian Hawk Cuckoo inhabits much of the Indian subcontinent.

It is interesting! The nominative subspecies of the Broad-winged Cuckoo settles in southern Burma and Thailand, in Malaysia and Singapore, in Borneo and Sumatra.

The Philippine cuckoo is found on a large part of the largest islands in the Philippines, and the Indonesian hawk cuckoo is endemic to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Red-breasted and black, as well as African common cuckoo inhabit South Africa, and the range of the Malayan-Sonda cuckoo covers almost the entire Malay Peninsula. In our country, the most widespread species are the Deaf cuckoo and the Common cuckoo.

Cuckoo diet

The basis of the cuckoo's diet are insects in the form of caterpillars and tree beetles, which harm the foliage and stem parts of trees. In addition to insects, cuckoos eat some fruits and berries, actively eat the eggs of many other bird species, as well as their chicks.

natural enemies

Reproduction and offspring

With the onset of spring, cuckoos from Africa return to European countries and Asia, to their traditional nesting sites. As a rule, such birds lead an exclusively solitary lifestyle, and the area of ​​​​the territorial area of ​​\u200b\u200bone adult male can reach several hectares. Females live most often in less extensive areas. The main condition for choosing a territory is the presence of nests of other birds within the inhabited estates.

It is interesting! One adult male during the breeding season fertilizes several females at once, which in most cases do not build nests, but actively observe other birds.

Most often, representatives of the Sparrow family, which are still called "songbirds" in the common people, cause increased interest in cuckoos. For many centuries, the genetic adaptability of each maternal line of cuckoos to certain types of birds has been formed, which is the reason for the external similarity of cuckoo eggs with other birds.

The female very patiently waits for the moment when the chosen “adoptive parents” leave their nest at least for a short period of time, after which she flies up and lays her egg in it. At the same time, the “native” egg for other birds is thrown out by the cuckoo, eaten or carried away with it. As a rule, the birds that have returned to the nest do not notice the substitution that has taken place, and the cuckoo chick hatches much faster than other chicks, after which it tries to throw out all the host's eggs. Quite often, the cuckoo manages to get rid of its "brothers", as a result of which it remains the only contender for food and attention in the nest.

It is interesting! When throwing eggs into other people's nests, the cuckoo makes sounds that are very reminiscent of laughter and a bit like the voice of an adult sparrowhawk.

There are several versions that allow explaining the presence of nest parasitism in cuckoos.. According to the first version, the predator father is able to peck at the laid eggs, so the cuckoo mother tries to save her offspring in this way. According to the second version, the time period during which the female lays her eggs is too long, and the cuckoo simply cannot simultaneously hatch her offspring and feed the chicks that have been born.

Everyone knows cuckoos well. And if someone didn’t see it with their own eyes (it’s not so easy to see a cuckoo), then they heard it when visiting the forest in spring or early summer. It is enough to hear the voice of the cuckoo once to immediately understand why she was given such a name. And so the bird is called not only in Russian. The Germans call this bird "Kukuk". French - "kuku". In Romania it is called "cook". In Italy - "doll". In Spanish, her name sounds "kuko", and in Turkish - "guguk".

The cuckoo is very careful: looking for suitable nests from an ambush in advance, she chooses the moment and lays her egg in it in a few seconds. Some scientists claim that at the same time the cuckoo removes the egg from the nest. But if you think about it - why would she do that? First, birds can't count; secondly, a completely different situation soon appears in the nest: instead of several, there is one chick; thirdly, the cuckoo throws out all its competitors, and it does not matter to him whether one more or one less. Finally, cuckoos lay their eggs not only in open nests. And it is not always possible to extract someone else's egg from a hollow or nest, even for purely technical reasons. By the way, the cuckoo does not lay an egg in closed nests - she lays it somewhere nearby on the ground and transfers it to a nest in her beak. If, nevertheless, the observers saw how the cuckoo removes the egg (there is no reason to doubt their veracity), then this was probably dictated by some special circumstances.

There is another opinion regarding the way the cuckoo lays eggs in other people's nests. It is believed that the bird is not cautious, but, on the contrary, acts very brazenly. Outwardly - both in contour and in color - it looks like a hawk. Flying low over the nest, the "hawk" cuckoo frightens the birds, forcing them to hide in the bushes or foliage, while she herself lays an egg at this time. They also say that the male helps the female in laying eggs - he scares or distracts the owners of the nest.

Having thrown eggs into several nests, one in each (and there are 10 and 25 eggs in a cuckoo), the cuckoo calmly goes to South Africa for the winter (adult cuckoos fly away very early, young ones - late). And tragedy is played out in the nests.

The cuckoo hatches from the egg a day or two earlier than its stepbrothers and sisters. This time is enough for him to get comfortable in the nest. He is still blind (the cuckoo's eyes open on the fifth day), still naked (but already strong enough - he weighs three grams, and can lift twice as much). But he already has an instinct to throw away: he throws out any object that he touches with his bare back. Such items are primarily the eggs or chicks of the nest owners. Throwing them on its back - the cuckoo even has a special platform on its back - and helping itself with its bare wings, the cuckoo chick "clears" the nest for itself in a short time. The cuckoo is in a hurry - the ejection instinct acts for three or four days, then subsides. If he does not have time to throw out his competitors during this time, the chicks will remain in the nest. But all the same, they are doomed: the cuckoo will intercept all the food that the "foster parents" will bring.

And the "foster parents" do not seem to notice the changes that are taking place in their nest. They feed a single chick with amazing zeal, although they could have long understood that in front of them is not their chick at all. Aristotle drew attention to this amazing phenomenon. "The cuckoo is so beautiful that its breadwinners begin to hate their own children," he wrote. The real reason for such "devotion" became known relatively recently, thanks to the research of the famous Dutch scientist N. Tinenbergen. It turns out that the cuckoo's bright red throat and yellow mouth are a signal, and a very powerful one, forcing not only "foster parents" to feed it, but also "foreign" birds that are nearby, give the cuckoo food caught for their own chicks. At the same time, no one notices or takes into account the colossal size of the chick. Feeding birds sometimes sit on the back or on the head of their fosterling, thrusting their heads entirely into his wide-open mouth.

Only a month and a half after leaving the nest, the cuckoo begins to lead an independent life.

Cuckoos mostly lay their eggs in the nests of small birds. But some species throw them into the nests of crows, jackdaws and other fairly large birds. But in any case, each cuckoo specializes in certain birds - robins or redstarts, warblers or flycatchers. And the eggs of specialized cuckoos are similar in shape and color to the eggs of these birds. As for the size of the eggs - and here is another phenomenon. The cuckoo weighs 100-120 grams, and her egg should weigh 15 grams. And she lays eggs weighing 3 grams, such as those of a bird weighing 10-12 grams.

Once in England, an exhibition of cuckoo eggs collected in 76 nests was organized different types birds. 919 eggs of the most different colors, coloring and size. But not all eggs were presented. Cuckoos are known to lay their eggs in the nests of at least 150 bird species.

It would seem that everything is clear, cuckoos are very harmful birds that destroy the chicks of many useful birds. And from here one could draw an appropriate conclusion and treat these birds accordingly. But it's too early to draw a conclusion. Let's look at it from a different point of view.

First, let's not blame the cuckoo for being a bad mother. Available different opinions concerning what makes cuckoos to lay eggs in other people's nests. But one thing is certain: this behavior of the cuckoo is explained not by the lack of maternal feelings, but, on the contrary, by concern for the preservation of its offspring. The cuckoo cannot save its life without throwing competitors out of the nest: its "adoptive parents" are not able to feed the whole family - the cuckoo is very voracious. And this bird's insatiability (if we talk about harm and benefit) atones for its guilt for the death of the chicks of other birds. An adult cuckoo can eat up to 100 caterpillars in an hour, and it can "work" with such intensity for several hours in a row. And if a lot of pests appear in the forest where the cuckoo lives, she will eat them without interruption until she eats them all. Many cuckoos flock to the "feast", they even fly from afar. In other words, one cuckoo destroys significantly more harmful insects (and more dangerous insects) than all the birds killed by the cuckoo would destroy..

But gluttony is not the only virtue of cuckoos. Among insects, especially among caterpillars, there are those that other birds do not eat, for example, many birds do not eat "hairy" caterpillars. And the cuckoo eats, and with great pleasure. Her stomach is arranged in such a way that the "hair" of the caterpillars sticks into a special coating of the walls, and then this coating is removed from the stomach along with the "hair".

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Scientists have long known about the strange habit of cuckoos to throw their eggs into other people's nests. Moreover, they calculated that more than 150 species of birds are secretly used as nannies by cuckoos. Near Moscow, cuckoos are frequent guests in the nests of wagtails, pipits, and European dawns. Near Petersburg - in nests of redstarts.

A cuckoo egg can be found in the nest of almost any songbird of our avifauna: warblers, wrens, flycatchers, and even in woodpecker hollows and on a swamp hummock among sandpiper eggs.

Cuckoo

Why don't birds throw out an uninvited guest's egg? First, as experiments have shown, many birds know their eggs very poorly. True, some birds still recognize cuckoo eggs and throw them away.

In order to insure against such troubles, the cuckoos have developed an amazing adaptation in the process of evolution: their eggs are similar in size and color to the eggs of those birds in whose nests they throw them.

And in order not to be mistaken and toss an egg into the nest of the right bird, cuckoos specialize in birds of a certain type: there are “wagtail” cuckoos, there are “redstart” cuckoos and others and others ... From year to year they throw their eggs into the nests of the corresponding species: wagtail, redstart. Each cuckoo usually lays eggs of exactly the color in which the eggs of its adoptive parents are painted.

Cuckoos have also developed another amazing adaptation: they lay very small eggs, weighing about three grams. But although the testicle is small, the embryo in it develops very quickly. After 11 days, the chick is born.

During life in a strange nest, the behavior of a chick changes several times. After birth, he behaves calmly for the first time, just like the chicks of other chicks. The cuckoo lies at the bottom of the nest among the eggs of the host species or slowly crawls over them. If his hatching is delayed, and he comes out of the egg later than his half-brothers and sisters, then at first he is neutral towards them.

However, usually within a day after leaving the egg, sometimes even earlier, after 8-10 hours, or a little later, a sharp change occurs in the behavior of the cuckoo. He becomes completely intolerant of everything that is near him. He is seized by an irresistible desire to throw everything that is in it out of the nest.

A small, naked, blind, actually still underdeveloped creature, more like a larva than a bird, with incredible persistence makes stereotypical movements aimed at pushing eggs out of the nest.

The cuckoo begins its work by moving backward, pressing the egg against the wall of the nest, crawling under it and placing it on its wide and flattened back. Then, holding the egg on both sides with long “wings” thrown over its back, it climbs the inner wall of the nest, pressing its back against it.

At the same time, he rises to his feet and, resting his head on the bottom of the nest, raises the back of the body so that the burden is as high as possible on his shoulders. Climbing up the inner wall of the nest, the cuckoo clings to it with all four limbs. At the most critical moment, before the last push, having climbed to the top of the nest, the cuckoo throws off the load and falls to the bottom of the nest.

After resting for 5-10 minutes, he does the same actions with the next egg. And so on until all the chicks or eggs are dealt with. A well-fed cuckoo works very energetically. Sometimes in an hour or two he throws everything that is in it out of the nest.

Apparently, for this reason, one female cuckoo never lays two eggs in the same nest. And if two eggs appear in the nest at the same time, you can be sure that they were laid by two different females living in the neighborhood. From these eggs, both chicks sometimes hatch almost simultaneously, during the day. And in almost all such cases, stubborn combat occurs between the chicks.

In a long and exhausting struggle, they try to throw each other out of the nest. As a result, a chick is left in the nest, usually the first to hatch. The second is thrown out of the nest. However, there are cases when the fight of two cuckoo chicks, which lasted several days, ended in the death of both cuckoos. They exhausted each other so much that they died of exhaustion.

But on the other hand, there are indications in the literature that two cuckoos lived peacefully in one nest.

Grown-up cuckoos and their "adoptive parents"