The common cuckoo is an effective indicator of high bird species richness in Asia and Europe [PDF]
Scientific Reports, 2017 Common cuckoo Cuculus canorus is a charismatic bird species with a dominant presence in human culture: from folklore legends to nowadays there is evidence of cuckoos being a prime candidate as a surrogate of bird diversity.
Federico Morelli +7 more
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Common cuckoo females remove more conspicuous eggs during parasitism [PDF]
Royal Society Open Science, 2021 Avian obligate brood parasites gain an advantage by removing the eggs of the cuckoos who have already visited the nest, which can increase the chances of survival for their offspring.
Longwu Wang +3 more
doaj +4 more sources
Asymmetry of eye color in the common cuckoo [PDF]
Scientific Reports, 2017 Bilateral symmetry is assumed to contribute to the evolution of eye color, with the left and right eye being the same color in most vertebrates; yet, few studies tested this assumption. Here, we compared the amount of iris flecking (black spots presented
Ha-Na Yoo, Jin-Won Lee, Jeong-Chil Yoo
doaj +6 more sources
Ancient origin and maternal inheritance of blue cuckoo eggs [PDF]
Nature Communications, 2016 The common cuckoo lays its eggs in nests of a variety of species and their eggs mimic the ones of their hosts. Here, the authors show that blue egg colouration in the common cuckoo is maternally inherited, originated in Asia and then expanded to Europe.
Frode Fossøy +10 more
doaj +4 more sources
Exploiting Nest Defense Behavior of Hosts: A Case Study of Successful Parasitism by a Common Cuckoo [PDF]
Ecology and EvolutionIn this study, we document the case of a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) successfully locating and parasitizing the nest of a gray bushchat (Saxicola ferreus) by exploiting the latter's nest defense behavior in Liuzhi, Guizhou, southwest China.
Qiqi Liu, Wei Liang
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Divergent Egg-Rejection Strategies Between Laying and Incubation Periods in the Green-Backed Tit (<i>Parus monticolus</i>). [PDF]
Ecol EvolOur results demonstrate that green‐backed tits have evolved independent adaptive responses to distinct selective pressures: nest predation during egg‐laying and brood parasitism during incubation. This study provides new insights into the plasticity of host defenses and suggests that species with egg‐covering behaviors may develop specialized anti ...
Ye P, Yang C.
europepmc +2 more sources
Supernormal Stimulus Begging Calls of Brood‐Parasitic Nestlings Depress the Parental Care in an Uncommon Host [PDF]
Ecology and EvolutionDuring the nestling period, brood‐parasitic birds stimulate host parents to provide food through complex visual and auditory signals, including emitting supernormal stimuli in the form of begging calls to increase the feeding frequency.
Li Tian +8 more
doaj +2 more sources
Complete mitochondrial genome and the phylogenetic position of the common cuckoo, Cuculus canorus bakeri (Aves: Cuculiformes) [PDF]
Mitochondrial DNA. Part B. Resources, 2019 The complete mitochondrial genome of Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus bakeri) is determined in this study and was deposited in Genbank with accession number MN067867. The length of the mitogenome is 17,457 base pairs (bp) including 13 protein-coding genes (
Shi Qiu +6 more
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Sex allocation in relation to host races in the brood-parasitic common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). [PDF]
PLoS ONE, 2012 Sex allocation theory and empirical evidence both suggest that natural selection should favour maternal control of offspring sex ratio in relation to their ability to invest in the offspring.
Frode Fossøy +9 more
doaj +2 more sources
Female Cuckoo Calls Are More Effective at Attracting Breeding Male Cuckoos and Their Hosts Than Male Cuckoo Calls [PDF]
Ecology and EvolutionVocalizations during the breeding season play a significant role in both intra‐ and inter‐specific communications. There have been numerous studies on the calls and functions of the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus [CC]). However, there is limited research
Hanlin Yan, Wei Liang
doaj +2 more sources