Cuckoo

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Cuckoos
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Vigors, 1825
Genera

See text.

The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos (family Musophagidae, sometimes treated as a separate order, Musophagiformes). Some zoologists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute.

The cuckoo family, in addition to those species named as such, also includes the roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae respectively.

Contents

Cuckoos are birds of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. The feet are zygodactyl (the two inner toes pointed forward and the two outer backward). Most cuckoos occur in forests, but some prefer more open country. Most are insect eaters, with hairy caterpillars, which are avoided by many birds, being a specialty. Cuckoos range in size from the Little Bronze Cuckoo, at 17 g and 15 cm (6 inches), to the Channel-billed Cuckoo, at 630 g (1.4 lbs) and 63 cm (25 inches).

Cuckoo genera differ in the number of primary wing feathers as below.

  • Phaenicophaeus, Coccyzus, Piaya - 9
  • Cuculus - 9 or 10
  • Pachycoccyx, Clamator levaillantii, Centropus - 10
  • Microdynamis, Eudynamys,Clamator glandarius - 11
  • Some coucals - 12
  • Scythrops novaehollandiae - 13

This Reed Warbler is raising the young of a Common Cuckoo, the best-known cuckoo.
This Reed Warbler is raising the young of a Common Cuckoo, the best-known cuckoo.

About 56 of the Old World species and 3 of the New World species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds.[1] The best-known example is the European Common Cuckoo. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier than the host's, and the cuckoo chick grows faster; in most cases the chick evicts the eggs or young of the host species. The chick has no time to learn this behavior, so it must be an instinct passed on genetically. The mother still feeds the cuckoo chick as if it were her own, the chick's open mouth serving as a sign stimulus for the host to feed it.[2]

Female parasitic cuckoos seem to specialize and lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of their chosen host. This has also been aided by natural selection, as some birds are able to distinguish cuckoo eggs from their own, leading to those eggs least like the host's being thrown out of the nest.[2] Parasitic cuckoos are grouped into gentes, with each gens specializing in a particular host. There is some evidence that the gentes are genetically different from one another.

The majority of cuckoo species, including malkohas, couas, coucals, and roadrunners and most other American cuckoos, build their own nests. Most of these species nest in trees or bushes, but the coucals lay their eggs in nests on the ground or in low shrubs. Though on some occasions non-parasitic cuckoos parasitize other species, the parent still helps feed the chick.

Most of the nest-building cuckoos are monogamous, but the anis and the Guira Cuckoo lay their eggs in communal nests. Their behavior is not completely cooperative; a female may remove others' eggs when laying hers.[1]

Non-parasitic cuckoos, like most other non-passerines, lay white eggs, but many of the parasitic species lay coloured eggs to match those of their passerine hosts.

The young of all species are altricial. Non-parasitic cuckoos leave the nest before they can fly, and some New World species have the shortest incubation periods among birds.[1]

Unlike most cuckoos, the Asian Koel is mostly frugiverous.
Unlike most cuckoos, the Asian Koel is mostly frugiverous.

Most cuckoos are insectivorous; and in particular are specialised in eating caterpillars, including noxious hairy types avoided by other birds. They will also take a wide range of other insects and animal prey. The lizard-cuckoos of the Caribbean have, in the relative absence of birds of prey, specialised in taking lizards. Larger, ground types such as coucals and roadrunners also feed variously on snakes, lizards, small rodents, and other birds, which they bludgeon with their strong bills.

Several koels, couas and the Channel-billed Cuckoo feed mainly on fruit,[3] but they are not exclusively frugivores. The parasitic koels and Channel-billed Cuckoo in particular consume mainly fruit when raised by fruigivore hosts such as the Figbird and Pied Currawong. Other species will occasionally take fruit as well.

The African Cuckoo was identified as a separate species on the basis of its call.
The African Cuckoo was identified as a separate species on the basis of its call.

Cuckoos are often highly secretive and in many cases best known for their wide repertoire of calls. Calls are usually relatively simple, resembling whistles, flutes, or hiccups.[4] The cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from the call of the Common Cuckoo, which is also familiar from cuckoo clocks. Some of the names of other species and genera are also derived from their calls, for example the koels of Asia and Australasia. In most cuckoos the calls are distinctive to particular species, and are useful for identification. Several cryptic species have been identified on the basis of their calls.

Call

Call of Banded Bay Cuckoo recorded in Wayanad, India

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Although cuckoos are diurnal, many species call at night.[1]

Unassigned

Brood-parasitic cuckoos.

Malkohas and couas.

American cuckoos.

  • Genus Coccyzus - includes Saurothera and Hyetornis, and possibly distinct Micrococcyx (13+2 species)
  • Genus Piaya - includes possibly distinct Coccycua (2+1 species)

Typical ground-cuckoos.

Coucals.

Anis.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
  1. ^ a b c d Payne, Robert B. (2005). The Cuckoos. Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2007-19-12. 
  2. ^ a b Biology (4th edition) N.A.Campbell, p.1179 'Fixed Action Patterns' (Benjamin Cummings NY, 1996) ISBN 0-8053-1957-3
  3. ^ Corlett R & Ping I (1995) "Frugivory by koels in Hong Kong" Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 20 221-222
  4. ^ Brooke, Michael deL.; Horsfall, John A. (2003). "Cuckoos", in Christopher Perrins (Ed.): Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books, 312–315. ISBN 1-55297-777-3. 
  • Feduccia, Alan (1996): The Origin and Evolution of Birds. Yale University Press, New Haven. ISBN 0-300-06460-8
  • Olson, Storrs L. (1985): Section VII.C. Cuculidae. In: Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): Avian Biology 8: 110-111. Academic Press, New York.

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo"
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