Swindling cuckoos: hawk-like call tricks hosts

Brood Parasitism in Asian Cuckoos: Different Aspects of Interactions between Cuckoos and their Hosts in Bangladesh

Cuckoos, cowbirds and hosts: adaptations, trade-offs and constraints.

The interactions between brood parasitic birds and their host species provide one of the best model systems for coevolution. Despite being intensively studied, the parasite-host system provides ample opportunities to test new predictions from both coevolutionary theory as well as life-history theory in general. I identify four main areas that might be especially fruitful: cuckoo female gentes a...

Cuckoo-hawk mimicry? An experimental test.

The similarity between many Old World parasitic cuckoos (Cuculinae) and Accipiter hawks, in size, shape and plumage, has been noted since ancient times. In particular, hawk-like underpart barring is more prevalent in parasitic than in non-parasitic cuckoos. Cuckoo-hawk resemblance may reflect convergent evolution of cryptic plumage that reduces detection by hosts and prey, or evolved mimicry of...

On the Origin of Raptor-Pattern and Hawk-Mimicry of Cuckoos

pattern of cuckoos, based on the behaviour of a captive Himalayan Cuckoo Cuculus saturatus, which suddenly spread its wings and tail in a threatening attitude to my finger, thus displaying the hawk-like pattern of underwing and tail. This was very similar in appearance to a photograph of Accipiter nisus in a treatening posture. In that note I mention that the hawk-pattern of birds of prey may h...

Cuckoos

Do you have a favourite book? There are two books which really inspired me, both semipopulist books that I first read in the summer before I started university, and both of which I have read many times since. The first was Richard Dawkins ‘The Selfish Gene’ for its engaging descriptions of a wide range of animal behaviours, and what progress can be made from an understanding of evolutionary pri...