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A chick of the common cuckoo in the nest of a tree pipit. The naked, altricial chick hatches after 11–13 days. [2] It methodically evicts all host progeny from host nests. It is a much larger bird than its hosts, and needs to monopolize the food supplied by the parents.
A pallid cuckoo juvenile being fed by three separate foster-parent species. About 56 of the Old World species and three of the New World cuckoo species (pheasant, pavonine, and striped) are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds [24] and giving rise to the metaphor "cuckoo's egg". These species are obligate brood ...
These birds are of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. Many have black and white undertail patterns. They occur in a variety of forests, woodlands or mangroves. Coccyzus cuckoos, unlike many Old World species, build their own nests in trees and lay two or more eggs.
Black-billed cuckoo preying on tent caterpillar nest. These birds forage in shrubs or trees. They mainly eat insects, especially tent caterpillars, but also some snails, eggs of other birds, and berries. [14] It is known to beat caterpillars against a branch before consuming them to remove some of the indigestible hairs.
The nest is an untidy bowl-shaped structure made of grasses and leaves. It is located in tall grass or bushes, and the stems overhead are often tied together to make a canopy. Two to six white oval eggs measuring 38 by 29 mm are laid. [9] The incubation period is 15 days, with young remaining in the nest for another 13 days. [6]
Channel-billed cuckoo juvenile being fed by the pied currawong (Strepera graculina) that raised it. Channel-billed cuckoos are brood parasites; instead of raising their own young, they lay eggs in the nests of other birds. They are thought to form pair bonds for the duration of a breeding season. [20]
The pied currawong is an omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, eating fruit and berries as well as preying on many invertebrates, and smaller vertebrates, mostly juvenile birds and bird eggs, although they may take healthy adult birds up to the size of a crested pigeon on occasion. Currawongs will hunt in trees, snatching insects and berries, as ...
When the little bronze cuckoo lays its eggs in a host’s nest, it often throws out an egg already occupying the nest. It also occasionally lays eggs in a nest before the host does. [13] While hosts do not throw out cuckoo eggs, [15] Geryone magnirostris and Geryone levigaster have been documented rejecting little bronze cuckoo hatchlings. [6]