Sunday, March 23, 2014

Study shows some cuckoo birds may actually help their hosts

A team of researchers in Spain has found that at least one species of cuckoo bird may actually help its nest-mates survive. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes how in studying the great spotted cuckoo, they found that crow hatchlings were actually more successful due to the presence of an uninvited bird(Yirka 1). Cuckoo birds have been labeled by many the ultimate freeloaders. Mothers lay their eggs in the nests of birds of different species, leaving them to raise their young for them (Yirka 1). Some cuckoo birds kick eggs of their siblings out of the nest, when others band together with their brothers and sisters and live with their crow hosts individually. Studies have shown that the survival rate of crow babies living with cuckoo bird babies have a higher survival rate than the rate of crow babies without the cuckoos living with them.

TOS: Science is collaborative: Five scientists have done similar experiments to this one and have added their imputs into this article.      Article:    http://phys.org/news/2014-03-cuckoo-birds-hosts.html
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMarch 23, 2014 at 11:03 PM

    It is very interesting to think that a free-loader like the cuckoo bird would actually help the survival of crows. It just goes to show how assumptions in science mean little when not backed up by evidence. It seems logical that a party crasher like the cuckoo would steal the food and space of the host birds and therefore lowers the survival rate, when actually the cuckoo bird's smell keeps predators away and increases the survival rate.

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