Cuckoo finch egg in zitting cisticola nest. Cuckoo finch eggs closely mimic the colour and pattern of the eggs of each of their several host species, to trick host parents into accepting the parasitic ...

Fork-tailed drongos have a signature color and pattern on their eggs, which helps them avoid getting duped by African cuckoos. Hans Stieglitz via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0 Cuckoos have ...

Egg 'signatures' will allow drongos to identify cuckoo 'forgeries' almost every time, study finds. African cuckoos may have met their match with the fork-tailed drongo, which scientists predict can ...

This marsh warbler has a cuckoo chick in its nest. It was unable to differentiate between the cuckoo egg and the rest of the eggs in its nest, researchers say. (Per Harald Olsen, NTNU) Female cuckoos ...

A cuckoo egg (light-blue) in a nest with a clutch of pink Daurian redstart eggs. Use of images is limited to editorial coverage of scientific topics relating to the activities of the Max Planck ...

European cuckoos lay very different eggs depending on the host species. Genetic analyses have revealed how this adaptation is inherited without leading to speciation. Subscribe to our newsletter for ...

Cuckoos are nest parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in other birds' nests. The female cuckoo has to lay eggs that mimic the color, size and shape of the eggs of the host bird. Using a massive data ...

It’s hard to get inside another human’s head – let alone a member of a different species – but that’s where physics and computer models help. Liz Kalaugher reports how researchers are visualizing what ...

Cuckoos are notorious for laying their eggs in other birds' nests. But their hosts are fighting back against this parasitic behaviour by evolving tell-tale signatures on their eggs, helping the host ...

European cuckoos lay very different eggs depending on the host species. Genetic analyses have revealed how this adaptation is inherited without leading to speciation. African cuckoos may have met ...

The common cuckoo is a parasite, as are many of its cousins in the family Cuculidae. "Parasite" is a word that usually conjures images of some insect worming its way into your body and exploiting it ...