If their eggs are accepted by the nesting bird, then the cuckoo finch does not need to expend the energy required to hatch an egg or care for the young. [Related: Songbirds near the equator really ...

It was as if the host bird were erring on the side of caution, since its own eggs tend to vary slightly. So, if the cuckoo’s eggs are reasonably close to the variations of the prinia eggs, the ...

Researchers crack cuckoo egg mystery Date: September 22, 2010 Source: University of Sheffield Summary: Researchers have discovered that cuckoo eggs are internally incubated by the female bird for ...

For some birds, recognizing their own eggs can be a matter of life or death. In a new study, scientists have shown that many birds affected by the parasitic Common Cuckoo -- which lays its lethal ...

Some birds accept freeloading cuckoo eggs into their nest rather than risk rejecting their own eggs, biologists show. Research led by Dr Naomi Langmore from the Australian National University in ...

Eggs of the fusspot brambling, on the other hand, which rejects 90% of cuckoo eggs, have about 30% colour-space overlap. Meanwhile, cuckoo eggs laid in the nest of red-backed shrikes – a bird so fussy ...

But other birds are wising up, evolving some seriously impressive tricks to spot the cuckoo eggs. Cuckoos are what’s known as brood parasites, meaning they hide their eggs in the nests of other ...

But in other cases, especially those involving cuckoo birds, the parasite’s eggs and the host’s eggs have similar patterns or colorations, and this results in some very cool evolutionary arms ...

So while host birds, over time, adapt to the cuckoo’s tricks, the cuckoo just adapts to become even trickier. Nature Ecology & Evolution , 2017. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0279-3 ( About DOIs ).

The term comes from the cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. See Easter Egg. Advertisement. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.