the.com/common cuckoo europe
the bird that outsources parenthood and still gets songs written about it.
means a migratory european bird famous for laying its eggs in other birds' nests, leaving them to raise its chick.
from from old french cucu, imitating the male's two-note call, a sound so distinctive it named both the bird and the clock.
egg mimicryeggs evolve to match host species' patterns exactly
chick evictionnewborn cuckoo pushes host eggs out of nest
migration distancesome fly over 10,000 km to central africa
host specializationfemale cuckoos target the species that raised them
for instance
reed warbler hosts — most studied victim species across britain and germany
chris the cuckoo — bto-tracked bird, satellite-followed migration since 2011
dartmoor cuckoos — uk population declining sharply, tracked since 1980s surveys