Cuckoo bird is well known to everyone since childhood, although few can say that they saw it. She got her name thanks to the sounds “cuckoo”. Bulgarians call it “kukovitsa”, Germans - “kukuk”, Czechs - “kukachka”, French - “ku-ku”, Romanians - “kuk”, Italians - “kukolo”, Spaniards - “kuko”, and Turks - “googuk” ".
Many legends are associated with this bird. According to one of the most common, a woman caused the death of her husband, for which she was punished. God turned her into a bird that could not have a family. The life of a cuckoo bird is very unusual, and from this all beliefs were born. Not only does the bird not incubate or feed offspring, but cuckoos also get rid of the "adopted parents" chicks. In science, this behavior has been called nesting parasitism.
The cuckoo bird is very careful. She looks after the desired nest, picks up a moment and quickly lays an egg in an open nest. If the nest is located in a hollow, then it acts differently. A bird carries an egg somewhere nearby on the earth, and then in its beak transfers it to a hollow.
There is another version of how cuckoos lay their eggs in other people's nests. She acts very cheeky. The cuckoo bird is similar in color and size to the hawk. A photo of her demonstrates this well. Flying low over the nest, it scares away the birds, forcing them to hide in the bushes, and at this time lays an egg. Amazingly, the male, attracting the attention of the owners of the nest to himself, helps her.
Having laid one egg in several nests (and a cuckoo can have up to 25 eggs), she “with a clear conscience” goes for the winter, as a rule, to South Africa. Adult individuals fly away very early, somewhere in July, and young ones much later.
A cuckoo hatches before its cousins. 1-2 days is enough for him to get comfortable. He is still blind (eyes open only on the fifth day), naked, but strong. It weighs 3 grams, and can lift 6 grams. The throwing instinct he had already woken up, so the cuckoo pushes out everything that it touches with its bare back, on which there is even a special platform. Helping himself with fledgling wings, he pushes the eggs of his adoptive parents.
Instinct lasts 3-4 days, then fades away. If during this time he does not throw out his competitors, they are doomed anyway, since they will not see food, the cuckoo will intercept everything brought. And the “adoptive parents” do not notice the changes in the nest and feed the foundling with amazing zeal.
The true reason for this behavior became known not so long ago. It turns out that the yellow color of the cuckoo’s mouth and the bright red tone of the pharynx are a powerful signal that forces not only “adoptive parents”, but also other birds flying with food to their chicks to feed it. In this case, no one takes into account the huge size of the chick. The cuckoo becomes independent only 1.5 months after departure from the nest.
The cuckoo bird lays eggs, as a rule, in nests of smaller birds. Each specializes in a specific form - flytraps, redstrikes, robins, chafers and others. Surprisingly, she carries eggs similar in color and size to those laid by the "adoptive mother." A cuckoo bird weighs about 110 grams, its egg should have a mass of 15 grams, but it weighs about 3 grams, that is, the same as a bird weighing 10-12 grams.
The cuckoo bird does not lay eggs because of lack of maternal instinct, but rather, on the contrary, taking care of the chicks, because they want to eat constantly, so it is not easy to feed them. Having killed so many chicks of different species of birds, the cuckoo redeems all his guilt. One adult per hour can eat up to 100 caterpillars, including hairy ones, which other birds ignore. And with such intensity, it can "work" for a long time. And if many pests appear in the forest, then the bird will “work” without a break until it destroys everyone. Moreover, cuckoos from all around come to the "feast". It turns out that one cuckoo bird can destroy much more harmful insects than all birds killed by a cuckoo would eat.
