It is difficult to imagine our forests without birds and their wonderful singing. And even more difficult to imagine a walk in the fresh air without the characteristic "cuckoo." This sound is made by male cuckoos, and females start gurgling trills. It seems that this is the most ordinary bird, but not much is known about it, since it is difficult to study.
Description of the common cuckoo
Do you know what this bird looks like?
Common cuckoo lives almost everywhere in Russia. But to see her is very difficult. As a rule, everyone heard her "cuckoo", but few people can boast that he saw this bird. So, an ordinary cuckoo in length can reach thirty-eight centimeters. The tail length is approximately thirteen to eighteen centimeters, and the wingspan is fifty-five centimeters. The bird weighs very little, about one hundred and thirty grams. Her legs are strong, but rather short. Females outwardly differ from males.
Females usually have red or brown plumage. There are black stripes on the back and head. Feathers themselves with a white edging. And the head and chest are usually light gray, but thin black stripes are clearly visible on them. The weight of the female does not exceed one hundred and ten grams. Young individuals have light red shades with dark stripes all over the body. Shedding birds twice a year. In summer, this is a partial change of the pen, and in winter it is a complete change.
In males, the tail and back are dark gray. The chest and head are gray. All other feathers are fairly light with dark stripes. The beak of the birds is dark, but the legs are yellow.
Breeding birds
The common cuckoo is a rather mysterious bird. It’s hard to see. Many peoples have a lot of legends about it. And this is primarily due to the unusual way of her life.
In early spring, cuckoos leave Africa and fly to Asia and Europe, to the nesting site. They lead a solitary life. Males occupy huge areas that reach several hectares. But in females, the territory is less extensive. For them, an important criterion is finding nearby nests of other birds.
The common cuckoo does not make nests. But she actively watches other birds. For example, representatives of the passerine family. Why do you think she does this?
The cuckoo chooses future carers for its chicks. Yes, such a cunning bird. She completely relieves herself of all the worries of raising babies and puts them on someone else's shoulders.
Strange cuckoo habits
The bird's caution is striking. She ambushes in advance to look for a good suitable nest. As soon as she seizes the moment, in a couple of seconds she lays her egg in it. Scientists came to the conclusion that at the same time she throws someone else's egg. But this fact is not confirmed. In fact, it is not clear why she should do this. Birds do not know how to count, which means that the hostess of the nest cannot detect an extra egg.
After the cuckoo hatches and gets a little stronger, he throws all his competitors out of the nest.
I must say that the common cuckoo lays eggs not only in nests, but also in hollows. Or rather, she first puts them off somewhere nearby, and only then transfers them in her beak.
There is also a completely opposite opinion on how the cuckoo throws its offspring. Its coloring is somewhat similar to hawkish. And so the bird uses impudence. She frightens the owners of the nest, flying low above them, and while they hide in confusion in the grass or leaves, she lays her eggs. The male can help her with this.
Chick Survival School
An ordinary cuckoo, whose appearance is unremarkable, nevertheless has an amazing cunning. One by one, she throws her eggs in different nests, and herself with a pure soul goes to winter in South Africa. Meanwhile, gloomy events are taking place in the nests of the adoptive parents.
The cuckoo, as a rule, hatches a couple of days earlier than its counterparts. During this time, he manages to acclimatize in the nest. Although he is still blind and naked, he has already developed the instinct of throwing away. Imagine that he throws everything that touches his bare back. First of all, these are eggs and chicks. The chick is in a hurry to do his job. Instinct works in it for only four days. But this is quite enough to destroy competitors. Even if someone survives, he still has little chance of surviving. The fact is that the cuckoo selects all the food that the adoptive parents bring.
Why don't birds notice cheating?
Surprising is the behavior of the owners of the nest. They do not seem to notice what is happening. And they try to feed the only baby. And at the same time they do not see that this is not their chick at all.
Not so long ago, the reason for such a strange behavior of birds was found out. It turns out that the yellow cuckoo’s mouth and red throat give the birds a powerful signal that forces adoptive parents to already eat large chicks. Even extraneous birds who were nearby, give him food, caught for their own chicks. Only a month and a half after the first flight from the nest, the chick begins to live independently.
Bird adaptability
An ordinary cuckoo mainly throws eggs to small birds. But some species throw them into nests of jackdaws and crows, and other rather large birds. Nonetheless, cuckoos specialize in certain birds, such as redstart, robin, scum, and flycatcher. In cuckoos, even eggs are similar to their offspring in both shape and color.
But as for their size, this is generally a mystery. The bird itself weighs about one hundred twenty grams, which means that its egg should weigh fifteen grams. Instead, the cuckoo lays very small eggs weighing three grams, which is incommensurable with its size.
Once in England, organized an exhibition of cuckoo eggs. So, nine hundred nineteen copies were exhibited. All of them were of different colors and sizes. This means that the birds lay eggs, which, like two drops of water, are similar to the eggs of adoptive parents. The cuckoo throws them into the nests of at least one hundred and fifty species of birds.
This is such an unusual bird. An ordinary cuckoo, however, despite such a parasitic way of life, is beneficial.
Does the cuckoo benefit?
At first glance, everything is clear. The common cuckoo is a bird of prey that destroys the chicks of good and healthy birds. However, not all so simple.
Probably, the cuckoo is not really a bad mother, she still makes efforts to save her offspring. And the desire to destroy competitors in the cuckoo is due to his great voracity.
It is such an amazing love of food that makes this bird very useful. What do you think the common cuckoo eats? Right, caterpillars. In just one hour, it can destroy up to a hundred tracks. And this is not the limit, because the bird is unrealistically gluttonous.
If a lot of parasites appeared in the forest, then she will eat them all, and all the relatives will hurry to help her. So cuckoos destroy a huge number of pests and insects.
Many birds do not eat hairy caterpillars. But the cuckoo does not sort out food in this sense. Her stomach is designed in such a way that the hairs of the caterpillars do no harm, but calmly gradually withdraw.
Where does the common cuckoo winter?
Cuckoo, no matter how surprised you are, it is a migratory bird. For the winter, she moves to South Africa. But how this happens is not known, because no one has seen cuckoos fly in packs, which is typical for other birds. Apparently, they make flights alone. They disappear very imperceptibly from the forests in autumn, as if they were not there. And just as unexpectedly appear in the spring, with the first bright rays of the sun.
Sometimes cuckoos can fly to the south of the Arabian Peninsula, to the Chinese provinces to the island of Ceylon, in Indochina.
Those individuals that winter in Africa leave it in early March. Birds fly very slowly, breaking eighty kilometers a day. They, not resting, fly day and night. At the place of wintering, they spend three months.
Are all cuckoos parasitic birds?
It would be unfair to say that absolutely all members of the cuckoo family are parasitic birds. Out of a hundred and fifty species, only fifty behave not very beautifully. All the rest are exemplary parents, independently raising their offspring.
And there are species that are partially parasitic. For example, in South America, the Ani cuckoo lives. So, she occasionally throws eggs into nests, but only exclusively of her relatives. But this rarely happens. Basically, she grows her kids on her own.
The common cuckoo (photos are given in the article) is distinguished by unusual behavior among representatives of its family.
In the world there are cuckoos who throw eggs in the nests, but then they themselves hatch or, conversely, later independently feed them. And there are those who put their offspring in the nests of large birds. Then the cuckoo does not need to throw his rivals out of the nest, because there is enough food for everyone.
Are all adoptive parents willing to raise someone else's chick?
It is not clear why the birds raise another's baby, having discovered a substitution. As experiments show, almost all birds do not know their eggs well. That is why they do not see the difference. Ducks, hens and eagles in general can hatch absolutely any object resembling an egg in shape. It was once noticed that the swans had the intention of hatching a bottle.
Scientists even did experiments with replacing all the eggs in the nest, after which the bird laid its own egg. So, seeing that it was not like everyone else, she threw it away, taking it for someone else's.
But not all birds are so stupid and illegible. Some skillfully detect the substitution and throw it out of the nests. Others simply abandon their homes with their future offspring and begin to twist a new nest. And some birds build the second floor above the old nest, a two-story structure is obtained, on the first level of which there are abandoned eggs, and on the second, the bird lays new offspring.
Where does the cuckoo live?
Common cuckoo is widespread enough. It nests in the European part of the continent and on the nearest islands, in Africa, Asia, and sometimes even migrates beyond the Arctic Circle.
In May and July in Russia, the bird can be found almost everywhere except the northern tundra. It is interesting that in different regions of the country there is a different number of parasitic species. There are five of them in Russia. Together they live in the Primorye region, in the European part only two of them live. The main places of residence are forests, parks, gardens, clearings near clearings, forest edges, coastal thickets and shrubs.
