Adult Little Bronze Cuckoo. Image, John Grant.
Australian native cuckoos are engaged in an arms race, competing with each other to take over other species' nests. The finding by Research School of Biology scientists gives new insights into the deceptive habits of cuckoos, which lay their eggs in other birds' nests to dupe other mums into raising cuckoo chicks. "Previous research has focussed on how cuckoos try to trick their hosts," said Dr Ros Gloag, the lead author of the research paper, which is published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "What our study shows is that cuckoos have evolved traits to try to trick other cuckoos, too." Cuckoos the world over fool other birds into rearing their young by laying their egg in the other bird's nest. They remove one of the existing eggs, so as to not arouse the host mother's suspicions. The eggs of many species of cuckoo have also evolved to mimic those of the host species, which further serves to fool the host mother. The young cuckoos hatch early and dominate the brood by pushing other chicks out of the nest. However, there is so much competition between Australian native bronze-cuckoos that they have changed the way they disguise their eggs.
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