Cuckoo hen: description, photo. Why and in what nests does the cuckoo lay eggs?

This article will tell you about a very strange bird, which differs from other birds in its surprisingly unusual behavior. This cuckoo, known for the fact that it lays its eggs or throws into the nests of other species of birds.

It turns out that the nestlings of her nourished completely alien, "foster" parents. This behavior is called nesting parasitism. Moreover, each of these birds throws their eggs in the nests of those species of birds that were once fed by her.

About their peculiarities, about what nests the cuckoo lays eggs and what their chicks are, what they eat, you can find out by reading this article. But first let's give general information about them.

Many know that all the worries about their offspring cuckoo-females shift to other people's shoulders, if you can say so, limited to finding ready-made alien nests and popping their eggs in them.

How is the baby cuckoo called? Cuckoo. That's about him and will be told in this article.

General information on the cuckoo

Different types of cuckoo vary in size. The majority of birds, belonging to the family of cuckoo, weight hardly reaches 100 grams, and the body length is no more than forty centimeters.

But for all representatives of this family is characterized by the presence of a rather long tail, strong paws and a thin trunk. And plumage, as a rule, does not differ especially bright coloring. And sexual dimorphism in the coloring either is poorly developed, or even absent.

There are no cuckoos only in the Arctic and Antarctic. And in general, the distribution area of their wide around the globe, especially they fell in love with warm countries. Some species inhabiting the temperate latitudes are mostly migratory, and the rest are sedentary.

Description

Before we find out what the cuckoo's chick is, let's describe his parents.

The size of a cuckoo is slightly smaller than a pigeon. Males and most of the females have an ash-gray color of the head and upper body. The bottom has a striped color ("hawk" type). There are females having a rusty-red coloring on the upper side of the body. The tail is quite long - reaches 15-19 centimeters, and the wings grow to 20-30 centimeters. In this regard, the cuckoo seems to be a large bird, especially in flight. In fact, it is small, and its weight is only 120 grams (maximum).

For more information on what a cuckoo chick is (see photo below), see later in this article.

It is believed that the cuckoo is a medium-sized bird: the smallest species is only slightly larger than the sparrow, and the largest are like crows. They have a rigid plumage that fits well to the body. But the fluff is poorly developed.

The elongated feathers of the shins in these birds form peculiar "pants". The wings of the majority of representatives of the family are long and sharp (the mahogo primary is only 10, the longest of which is the third).

The stepped long tail has, as a rule, 10 feathers of the steering. The four-toed feet of the cuckoo are short.

The young cuckoo (chick) from its old relatives differs by a more brown color of the upper part of the body, usually with rusty-red bands transverse. The tail is near the cuckoo with a white tip, while the red females have a dark strip along the edge.

Sounds the male publishes in the form of "ku-ku", sometimes turning into a hollow laughter. For females, the sonorous sound of "kli-kli-kli" is characteristic. Usually the cuckoo cuckles no more than ten times in a row.

About varieties

The total number of the detachment of cuckoo is about 150 species, uniting into 39 genera. They are divided into 2 suborders: real cuckoo, containing one family of cuckoos, and turako, containing one family of Turako (or bananoid).

Most of the family members are shrub and arboreal. Their life passes in the crown of bushes and trees. There are among them species that lead a terrestrial way of life. They build their nests on the ground.

Many cuckoos are monogams. During the breeding season, they form pairs, build nests themselves, incubate eggs and feed their chicks.

About 50 species are polygamas, in which nested parasitism is clearly expressed.

Often people ask themselves: "Why does the cuckoo throw his chicks?" It turns out that this is characteristic only of the polygam cuckoos.

Habitat, lifestyle

This cuckoo nests on the lands from England to Japan and Kamchatka, occupying virtually the entire Russian territory from west to east. In the north, in the European part of the country, the distribution area of this bird reaches the Arctic Circle and even a little further. As for the southern part, in this region the cuckoos "crossed" the state border, reaching Asia Minor and North Africa.

The bird inhabits both tundra and semi-deserts, having chosen bushes, forests and mountain elfins. Eats a variety of insects (helps in the destruction of many hairy caterpillars, which usually other birds do not feed). About what the cuckoo chick feeds, you can find out below.

Nesting parasitism

The main and interesting feature of the cuckoo is the laying of eggs in the nests of birds of other species. At the same time, all cares for hatching and subsequent rearing of offspring are shifted to "foster parents". How does this happen? About this further.

Their cuckoo eggs are laid in other people's nests. And for this the female occupies a certain area of the territory, where she looks for suitable bird houses. There are cuckoos that mostly use nests of white wagtails, some - nests of warbler, others - skates, etc. According to scientists, cuckoos are divided into peculiar "biological tribes", adapted to parasitize certain species of small birds.

Almost all such representatives of the family live in the eastern hemisphere, and monogams live in the western hemisphere. The first, as you remember, do not form a pair: in one area there are only one female and several males, less often their ratio is opposite.

In parasitic species, eggs are very small, they are slightly larger than the eggs of many small birds, to which their mother puts them in their nests. And in form with coloring, they are also very similar to the eggs of host birds, or very slightly different.

In which nests does the cuckoo lay eggs?

In the European part of Russia, these birds throw eggs into nests of several dozen species: to tiny kings, wren, nightingales, swifts, etc. They throw "adoptives" and sparrows.

Different species of cuckoo and the number of eggs thrown. For example, the crested leaves several eggs in one chosen nest, and the ordinary one - only one. And they do it differently. Some of them lay their eggs directly in the host's nest, while others lay on the ground, and then carry them in their beaks. In one season it is the parasitic species that lay 10-25 eggs each.

Features

Cuckoo eggs differ in all species, because females belong to different hereditary lines. Each of them is associated with a certain species of host birds, so the eggs are laid off in an appropriate color. There is another interesting point. A slightly grown-up cuckoo from the nest pushes out other chicks whose parents continue to feed the foundling.

Depending on the region of the habitat and the host bird, the cuckoo can be different. In the European part, it is primarily redstarts, wagtails, swine and shrouds-roaches. The time of their reproduction is from May to July.

Cuckoo hen: photo, description

The newly emerged cuckoos are often outwardly similar to the nests of the hosts of the nest. And the voices of the parasitic cuckoo chicks are usually like the voices of the young masters. Nestlings of absolutely all cuckoos appear blind and naked.

The embryo, warmed by the diligent hen, develops rather quickly. The cuckoo hen comes out of the egg after 12 days, that is earlier than the chicks of most small birds. In growth, he quickly overtakes the children of his adoptive parents.

Strangely enough, almost immediately after hatching (after 10-12 hours), the cuckoo has some special need to throw out of the nest different objects that touch its back (the naked skin has a lot of very sensitive nerve endings). If suddenly a warm testicle with a wiggling chick gets on the back of the foundling, the cuckoo, placing it in the sacral cavity and holding its wings, crawls to the edge of the nest to throw it to the ground. He can also do with small chicks.

The habits

In total, during the first 3-4 days of life, when a chick appears such a reflex, the cuckoo hen (adoptive) emits only 10 eggs from the nest, or almost all the chicks of the host. Usually their parents feed only in nests, so discarded babies die.

The entire brood of the host bird usually remains intact, if the cuckoo tosses an egg into a nest with an already cloistered masonry, because it begins to lag behind them in growth. Then it is very difficult for parents to feed so many mouths.

The cuckoo in the nest is completely silent. A little later, he begins, demanding food, loudly squeak. And after the flight from the nest, he squeaks, torturing his foster parents.

A very strange picture looks like when two small birds, such as a flycatcher or a chiffchaff, constantly bustle near a large, reddish-plumed, already flying cuckoo. In the photo below you can see what a cuckoo's chick looks like, which is fed by the birds of a different kind.

Kukushonok so wide his mouth that it creates the feeling that he can swallow the bird along with the caterpillars. Often there is such a picture: the bird sits on the shoulders of the cuckoo and tops it with food in its mouth, and then rushes for its prey again.

Feeding the cuckoo

Feed on these birds food exclusively animal. Usually mining is collected from bushes, trees and a little less often from the ground. It happens that they catch insects and on the fly in the air, for which their wide mouth is well adapted.

The basis for feeding most of the species of cuckoo is a variety of insects and their larvae. Less often they eat other invertebrates (for example, spiders).

There are species of cuckoos (mostly tropical) that are fed by bird eggs and chicks, amphibians, small mammals and reptiles.

And what do the cuckoo chicks eat? Growing cuckoos differ amazing voracity. One case is known when a very young chick from this species, fed in a cage, ate 39 large green grasshoppers, 18 lizards, 3 pupae of butterflies, 5 larvae of the May beetle, 43 cabbage caterpillars, 4 spiders, 50 worms of flour and a large number of eggs "Ants.

Interesting Facts

• The chick is very demanding to feed, therefore persistently achieves its own. Often happens that it is fed not only by the "adoptive" parents, but also by other birds.

• The cuckoo has different similar names in other countries: the Bulgarians call it "kukovichi", Romania has the word "cook", the Germans called it "cuckoos", the Czechs call it "cuckoo", the French call it "kuku", and the Italians call it " Puppet ".

• The color of the cuckoo is basically the same as that of the Sparrowhawk. Perhaps this is not accidental, because thanks to this cuckoo can easily drive away from the nest of the owners.

• Little Redstart and Reed Warbler are the most often brought up by the young cuckoo's pupils.

Conclusion

Despite this feature of the described bird, it is considered useful. The only not very pleasant moment is that, throwing your eggs into other people's nests and causing the death of the owners' chicks in connection with this, the cuckoo does some harm, destroying insectivorous useful birds.

There are places where a lot of cuckoos live, in connection with what happens, and such that the warbler does not bring out one of his chicks during the summer. These are all the tricks of mothers of cuckoos and the chicks themselves. In turn, this gluttonous bird exterminates a huge number of harmful caterpillars over the summer (for example, hairy ones), which are usually not affected by small birds. Such a useful work, no doubt, the cuckoo covers the harm inflicted by its parasitism in the nests of other small birds.