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Britain may be first in a global trend -- a trend they don't particularly relish. Some of the common birds are also starting to diminish in numbers, including the common cuckoo -- the herald of spring in the British isles.
Bird surveys across the English countryside are trying to determine just how bad the problem is. The Woodland Trust and the British Trust of Ornithology are asking Britons to listen and report any cuckoos that they hear -- or, more ominously, if they do NOT hear any cuckoos.
These chatty gray birds are "social parasites" -- creatures that lay eggs in the nests of other birds and leave offspring to be cared for by foster parents of a different species. The cuckoo breeds from May through July. Once a suitable nest with eggs is found, the female cuckoo waits for both parents to leave to feed. Then she flits to the nest and lays her own egg. Female cuckoos have been seen laying their eggs on the ground near a nest, and then carrying the egg to the nest. The eggs of the cuckoo are small and resemble the eggs of the host birds. Each female cuckoo lays as many as 25 eggs -- but she lays only one egg in each nest. The egg hatches in about two weeks and the host mother bird will treat it as if it was her own chick. Not all birds are fooled by the sudden arrival, and some will abandon nests with a cuckoo egg. Once it hatches, instinct takes over to benefit the little cuckoo over the other nestlings. The cuckoo chick will throw other nestlings or eggs from the nest, leaving it as the only chick receiving food from the smaller host parents. The host parents will continue to feed the cuckoo even after it grows to be much larger than they are. Cuckoo chicks are so succeseful that their calls lure birds other than its host parents to feed it. Go To Page: 1 2 |
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