As avian embryos develop, they draw needed calcium from the inner most layer of their eggshell, which in turn thins the eggshell and facilitates hatching. Yet, parasitic cuckoos, which lay their eggs ...

A study of reed warbler behavior reveals for the first time that in assessing the risks posed by cuckoos the birds combine information from multiple sources. An 'information highway' provides one set ...

Nestlings of brood parasites exhibit more intensive begging than offspring of their hosts to gain sufficient amount of food or competitive advantage over host nestlings. This begging behaviour should ...

Using multiple logistic regression analysis, we investigated the influence of nest site characteristics, laying date and nest size in marsh warblers Acrocephalus palustris on the risk of parasitism by ...

The common cuckoo deploys a wide range of tricks to deceive smaller birds into raising cuckoo chicks instead of their own progeny. This is a form of parasitism: The brood parasite hijacks the parental ...

Cuckoos are nest parasites. That means they lay eggs in the nests of other birds, which then put the effort into raising the chicks. So you'd think they'd be quiet about it. Yet female cuckoos have a ...

There is an azure blue egg hidden in a hanging basket of ferns on our front porch. It belongs to a female house finch that just about caromed off my forehead last week when I tipped a watering can ...

Jeff Reiter has a nemesis — or three — on his mind. He has come tantalizingly close to the mangrove cuckoo down in Florida.

It's a risky business being a reed warbler. Not only do these tiny birds embark on an annual migration of some 5,000 km from their West African winter quarters to breeding grounds in the north, but ...