The Cuckoo and Other Bird Mysteries

Publisher : Eyre & Spottiswoode; First Edition (1 Jan. 1944)

• Hardcover : 198 pages
• ISBN-10 : 1135839654
• ISBN-13 : 978-1135839659

Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature 

Beloved as the herald of spring, cuckoos have held a place in our affections for centuries. The oldest song in English celebrates the cuckoo's arrival, telling us that 'Sumer is icumen in'. But for many other birds the cuckoo is a signal of doom, for it is Nature's most notorious cheat. Cuckoos across the world have evolved extraordinary tricks to manipulate other species into raising their young. How do they get away with it?

In this enormously engaging book, naturalist and scientist Nick Davies reveals how cuckoos trick their hosts. Using shrewd detective skills and field experiments, he uncovers an evolutionary arms race, in which hosts evolve better defences against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve novel forms of trickery. This is a fascinating corner of Darwin's 'entangled bank', where creatures are continually evolving to keep up with changes in their rivals.

Lively field drawings by James McCallum, and remarkable photographs, show cuckoos in action: from the female cuckoo laying her beautifully disguised egg, to the cuckoo chick ejecting the host's eggs and young from the nest to ensure it gets the full attention of its foster parents.

Cuckoo offers a new insight not only into the secret lives of these extraordinary birds, but also into how cheating evolves and thrives in the natural world.

The Cuckoo (Shire natural history)

The Cuckoo becomes a secretive and elusive bird which few of us see and the hidden mysteries of its lifestyle remain largely unnoticed. The Cuckoo is a brood parasite, one of only eighty species in the world which lay their eggs in the nests of other species who then rear the alien young. In Britain the Cuckoo generally lays its eggs in the nests of Dunnocks, Meadow Pipits and Reed Warblers, but over fifty species are known to have received eggs of the Cuckoo. About 10-15 eggs are laid, always in different nests and when the hosts are developing their own clutch. This book describes the fascinating lifestyle of the Cuckoo and the many adaptations it has evolved to suit its parasitic breeding strategy.

The Cuckoo: The Uninvited Guest

We all know Cuckoos as the harbingers of spring - whose haunting calls proclaim the birds own name across fields and reedbeds. A bird much more often heard than actually seen, and often mistaken for a hawk or falcon when briefly glimpsed in flight. Cuckoos are also well known, perhaps even infamous, for their habit of laying their own eggs into the nests of much smaller species, such as reed warblers, who are then doomed to raise the enormous cuckoo chick rather than their own young, and whose eggs are ruthlessly thrown from the nest by the cuckoo hatchling.But how does this complex behaviour act out in nature, and how did it evolve? What are the cuckoo's special tricks and what counter-measures have the host birds developed to resist the depredations of cuckoos? In this book the authors delve into the stories behind what we see, and into the complex and ever evolving evolutionary arms race by which the nest parasite and its hosts constantly try to leapfrog each other into prime position.The natural history of the cuckoo-host struggle is illuminated with detailed explanations of the results of behavioural and ecological research to provide a comprehensive, but highly readable, account in which an insight into one puzzle constantly reveals a new question begging an answer. The whole story is brought vividly to life through the astonishing photographs of Oldrich Mikulica, who has watched cuckoos and their various hosts from hides for almost four decades. The result is a unique and beautiful book which both informs and delights.'A wonderful book! Never before have the lives of cuckoos been revealed in such extraordinary, aesthetic, intimate detail.' Tim Birkhead, scientist and author of The Most Perfect Thing: the Inside (and Outside) of a Bird's egg.'The most fascinating illustration of cuckoo behaviour and ecology I have ever appreciated.' Franz Bairlein, Director, Institute of Avian Research, Germany. President, International Ornithologists' Union.

Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo

If we could see it as a whole, if they all arrived in a single flock, say, we would be truly amazed: sixteen million birds. Swallows, martins, swifts, warblers, wagtails, wheatears, cuckoos, chats, nightingales, nightjars, thrushes, pipits and flycatchers pouring into Britain from sub-Saharan Africa.

It is one of the enduring wonders of the natural world. Each bird faces the most daunting of journeys -navigating epic distances, dependent on bodily fuel reserves. Yet none can refuse. Since pterodactyls flew, twice-yearly odysseys have been the lot of migrant birds.

For us, for millennia, the Great Arrival has been celebrated. From The Song of Solomon, through Keats' Ode To a Nightingale, to our thrill at hearing the first cuckoo call each year, the spring-bringers are timeless heralds of shared seasonal joy.

Yet, migrant birds are finding it increasingly hard to make the perilous journeys across the African desert. Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo is a moving call to arms by an impassioned expert: get outside, teach your children about these birds, don't let them disappear from our shores and hearts.

Life Histories of North American Cuckoos, Goatsuckers, Hummingbirds

Publisher : Dover Publications Inc. (1 Feb. 1940)

• Language : English
• Paperback : 505 pages
• ISBN-10 : 0486212246
• ISBN-13 : 978-0486212241

Cuckoos, Nightbirds and Kingfishers of Australia

Publisher : Collins (2 Nov. 1994)

• Language : English
• Hardcover : 270 pages
• ISBN-10 : 0207185220
• ISBN-13 : 978-0207185229

Doves, Parrots, Louries and Cuckoos of Southern Africa

• Publisher : Helm (1 Feb. 1983)
• Language : English
• Hardcover : 400 pages
• ISBN-10 : 0709922477
• ISBN-13 : 
• 978-0709922476