What is the cuckoo?

Cuckoo is a bird in the Cuculidae family, which contains a wide cross -section of birds found in the old and new world. These birds are particularly known for their calls, which consist of two notes, although many cuckoos can make other sounds that often sound quite pitiful and scary. Some members of the Cuckoo family are also parasites of pups and lays eggs in the nest of other birds to make them raise their youngsters. These birds tend to have very slender bodies, with long tails and stockings, and many of them have their heads. The plumage feathers may vary, with many birds being gray to brown, sometimes with stains of bright spots. These birds have the so -called toes zygodactyl, which means that two fingers point forward and two fingers point backwards; This feature leads the cuckoo to classification as "near Passerine birds".

The cuckoo habitat varies greatly. Some species prefer to live, nest and hunt on the ground, while others fly and perch, build nests on trees. Cuckoo lzIt is found in harsh desert environments and fresh forests and many of them are quite adaptable, which shows the remarkable ability to cope with changes in the environment. The vast majority of birds are insect and use their hard beaks to crush their prey from swallowing, and some cuckoo even prepare their food scratching through the rocks and bark to remove non -confined spine or hair.

Although the cuckoo is known as a parasite for the young, relatively few types of cuckoos actually show parasitism. The vast majority prefer nest and increase their own young people. Among the species that have evolved as parasites of chicks, eggs are often similar to color and size to specific bird species, suggesting that the birds have evolved to develop the advantage of specific birds. Cuckoo eggs usually hatch first and the chick uses its larger size to push other hatchling.

These birds are the topic of some discussions and debates among ornithologists. NThe kind of cuckoo species proved to be difficult to classify and some attempts to sequencies the genetics of the cuckoo in an effort to reveal the complicated biological history of these birds. Cuckoos also shows such a wide range of behavior and vocalization that the Cuculida family is actually divided into a number of subfamines, which represents clear differences between the individual members of this family of the bird family.