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Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature
The familiar call of the common cuckoo, "cuck-oo," has been a harbinger of spring ever since our ancestors walked out of Africa many thousands of years ago. However, for naturalist and scientist Nick Davies, the call is an invitation to solve an enduring puzzle: how does the cuckoo get away with laying its eggs in the nests of other birds and tricking them into raising young cuckoos rather than their own offspring?
Early observers who noticed a little warbler feeding a monstrously large cuckoo chick concluded the cuckoo's lack of parental care was the result of faulty design by the Creator, and that the hosts chose to help the poor cuckoo. These quaint views of bad design and benevolence were banished after Charles Darwin proposed that the cuckoo tricks the hosts in an evolutionary battle, where hosts evolve better defenses against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve better trickery to outwit the hosts.
For the last three decades, Davies has employed observation and field experiments to unravel the details of this evolutionary "arms race" between cuckoos and their hosts. Like a detective, Davies and his colleagues studied adult cuckoo behavior, cuckoo egg markings, and cuckoo chick begging calls to discover exactly how cuckoos trick their hosts. For birding and evolution aficionados, Cuckoo is a lyrical and scientifically satisfying exploration of one of nature's most astonishing and beautiful adaptations.
Early observers who noticed a little warbler feeding a monstrously large cuckoo chick concluded the cuckoo's lack of parental care was the result of faulty design by the Creator, and that the hosts chose to help the poor cuckoo. These quaint views of bad design and benevolence were banished after Charles Darwin proposed that the cuckoo tricks the hosts in an evolutionary battle, where hosts evolve better defenses against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve better trickery to outwit the hosts.
For the last three decades, Davies has employed observation and field experiments to unravel the details of this evolutionary "arms race" between cuckoos and their hosts. Like a detective, Davies and his colleagues studied adult cuckoo behavior, cuckoo egg markings, and cuckoo chick begging calls to discover exactly how cuckoos trick their hosts. For birding and evolution aficionados, Cuckoo is a lyrical and scientifically satisfying exploration of one of nature's most astonishing and beautiful adaptations.
289 pages, Hardcover
First published March 12, 2015
34 people are currently reading
658 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 8, 2015
I think I've been dangerously close to becoming a Cuckoo Bore whilst reading this book. My family are now all cuckoo experts too! Who knew that a book solely about one particular bird could be so fascinating?
I've heard the cuckoo calling many times each Spring although I've never seen one. Apart from knowing that they lay their eggs in other birds nests - and that's where their parenting duties cease - I couldn't have told you any more about them.
Davies has rectified my ignorance with a scientific but always interesting description of how, why, where and when. He's a Professor of Behavioural Ecology at Cambridge University and has studied these birds for 30 years so he should know his stuff!
The evolution of both the cuckoo as a successful parasite and other species as hosts was amazing! Loved the experiments with dummy eggs, for example eggs painted different colours to see if they would be rejected.
Occasionally there was too much science for me but I always understood the point he was making.
I've heard the cuckoo calling many times each Spring although I've never seen one. Apart from knowing that they lay their eggs in other birds nests - and that's where their parenting duties cease - I couldn't have told you any more about them.
Davies has rectified my ignorance with a scientific but always interesting description of how, why, where and when. He's a Professor of Behavioural Ecology at Cambridge University and has studied these birds for 30 years so he should know his stuff!
The evolution of both the cuckoo as a successful parasite and other species as hosts was amazing! Loved the experiments with dummy eggs, for example eggs painted different colours to see if they would be rejected.
Occasionally there was too much science for me but I always understood the point he was making.
September 6, 2015
Nick Davies is a top-scientist (he is a Fellow of the Royal Society), and a birder, and he was the external examiner for my PhD. So, he’s quite a guy.
I remember once walking down Tennis Court Road in Cambridge, heading to see a flock of Waxwings which were reported to be nearby. I encountered Nick coming back from having seen them and in our chat he told me that he had noticed that the Waxwings tended to eat about three berries and then take a break from eating. He watches birds and sees things.
The subject of this book is a marvellous one. The Cuckoo is the only obligate brood parasite amongst UK birds. Cuckoo mothers don’t lift a finger, or a primary feather, to help their young: they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and fool them into doing all the work. If you don’t think that the existence of evil, the existence of Jimmy Saville and the existence of world poverty are arguments enough against the existence of a caring God then the existence of the Cuckoo is quite a contender. Who would dream up such a lifestyle just for a laugh?
Whereas, if animal behaviour is shaped by natural selection then it’s a damn sight easier to understand – and admire.
How do Cuckoos choose their ‘hosts’ – their rather duped ‘hosts’? Why are some species ‘duped’ and others aren’t? How good does the egg mimicry have to be? How does it all work?
The answers to these questions and so many more, are in this book. If you want to understand about this particular bird, and all other birds, then read this book. It is a clear exposition of how to analyse and understand animal behaviour, from aardvarks to zebra because natural selection is what drives it all. This in-depth exploration of the Cuckoo, will demonstrate to you a way of thinking that can be, and has been, applied to many other species with success. And this study used logic, modelling, and simple field experiments to derive a deep understanding of how the Cuckoo behaviour has evolved – and why the hosts have lost.
So, the subject is fascinating. You won’t realise quite how fascinating until you get into this book. But even the most riveting subject can be made to seem dull or impenetrable by the wrong exposition. This book is the right exposition.
I have always believed that it is only those who deeply understand an issue who can explain it totally convincingly to others. Nick Davies understands the Cuckoo, and evolution, better than most. Much better than most. Much, much better than most.
I remember going to a talk he gave a couple of years ago – on the Cuckoo – and being mesmerised by the clarity of the explanation. I looked around the room and saw some people transfixed and others looking rather disengaged. The disengaged were wrong, the transfixed were right.
So not only is this a wonderful tale, it has found a wonderful teller of the tale. The hero of this book is natural selection. The teller of the tale is a hero too. Making something understandable, whilst staying true to the complexity of the subject, is a remarkable skill. Richard Dawkins demonstrated it in The Selfish Gene. Nick Davies, with his feet firmly on the ground, demonstrates it here. This is a phenomenal tale told phenomenally well.
I’m less impressed, I have to say (well maybe I don’t have to say, but I will anyway) with the illustrations. They don’t live up to the quality of the story and the quality of the telling of the story. I don’t think the illustrator is very good at Cuckoos – particularly in flight. But, you may not agree and in any case it certainly is not a reason to avoid this book which is published later this week. The photographs are very good though.
Buy this book, read it, and then spread the word that there is a classic out there that should be read by birders and non-birders alike.
This review first appeared on Mark Avery's blog http://markavery.info/2015/03/08/sund...
I remember once walking down Tennis Court Road in Cambridge, heading to see a flock of Waxwings which were reported to be nearby. I encountered Nick coming back from having seen them and in our chat he told me that he had noticed that the Waxwings tended to eat about three berries and then take a break from eating. He watches birds and sees things.
The subject of this book is a marvellous one. The Cuckoo is the only obligate brood parasite amongst UK birds. Cuckoo mothers don’t lift a finger, or a primary feather, to help their young: they lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and fool them into doing all the work. If you don’t think that the existence of evil, the existence of Jimmy Saville and the existence of world poverty are arguments enough against the existence of a caring God then the existence of the Cuckoo is quite a contender. Who would dream up such a lifestyle just for a laugh?
Whereas, if animal behaviour is shaped by natural selection then it’s a damn sight easier to understand – and admire.
How do Cuckoos choose their ‘hosts’ – their rather duped ‘hosts’? Why are some species ‘duped’ and others aren’t? How good does the egg mimicry have to be? How does it all work?
The answers to these questions and so many more, are in this book. If you want to understand about this particular bird, and all other birds, then read this book. It is a clear exposition of how to analyse and understand animal behaviour, from aardvarks to zebra because natural selection is what drives it all. This in-depth exploration of the Cuckoo, will demonstrate to you a way of thinking that can be, and has been, applied to many other species with success. And this study used logic, modelling, and simple field experiments to derive a deep understanding of how the Cuckoo behaviour has evolved – and why the hosts have lost.
So, the subject is fascinating. You won’t realise quite how fascinating until you get into this book. But even the most riveting subject can be made to seem dull or impenetrable by the wrong exposition. This book is the right exposition.
I have always believed that it is only those who deeply understand an issue who can explain it totally convincingly to others. Nick Davies understands the Cuckoo, and evolution, better than most. Much better than most. Much, much better than most.
I remember going to a talk he gave a couple of years ago – on the Cuckoo – and being mesmerised by the clarity of the explanation. I looked around the room and saw some people transfixed and others looking rather disengaged. The disengaged were wrong, the transfixed were right.
So not only is this a wonderful tale, it has found a wonderful teller of the tale. The hero of this book is natural selection. The teller of the tale is a hero too. Making something understandable, whilst staying true to the complexity of the subject, is a remarkable skill. Richard Dawkins demonstrated it in The Selfish Gene. Nick Davies, with his feet firmly on the ground, demonstrates it here. This is a phenomenal tale told phenomenally well.
I’m less impressed, I have to say (well maybe I don’t have to say, but I will anyway) with the illustrations. They don’t live up to the quality of the story and the quality of the telling of the story. I don’t think the illustrator is very good at Cuckoos – particularly in flight. But, you may not agree and in any case it certainly is not a reason to avoid this book which is published later this week. The photographs are very good though.
Buy this book, read it, and then spread the word that there is a classic out there that should be read by birders and non-birders alike.
This review first appeared on Mark Avery's blog http://markavery.info/2015/03/08/sund...
September 26, 2024
Enorm van genoten. Hoewel het heel veel informatie geeft, en allerlei variaties van experimenten beschrijft, leest het heel vloeiend. Koekoeken zijn fascinerende vogels.
April 24, 2018
39th book for 2018.
This is a nice book summarizing much of what we know about cuckoos, and the evolutionary "arms race" between brood parasites (like the cuckoo) and the host species they prey on. In it, he describes much of his fascinating research over 30 years on the Common Cuckoo in the wetlands near Cambridge, with additional chapters devoted to bird brood parasites in Africa and Australia. It ends on a sad lament for the accelerating decline of the cuckoo as habit is systematically removed across Europe.
3-stars.
This is a nice book summarizing much of what we know about cuckoos, and the evolutionary "arms race" between brood parasites (like the cuckoo) and the host species they prey on. In it, he describes much of his fascinating research over 30 years on the Common Cuckoo in the wetlands near Cambridge, with additional chapters devoted to bird brood parasites in Africa and Australia. It ends on a sad lament for the accelerating decline of the cuckoo as habit is systematically removed across Europe.
3-stars.
April 27, 2023
Sounds niche, but amazing
Nature is amazing. Cuckoos the perfect way to show this … can’t recommend enough
Nature is amazing. Cuckoos the perfect way to show this … can’t recommend enough
June 1, 2017
I loved reading this book. It's about cuckoos. It's about the British countryside. Reading it abroad I became wistful for the UK.
The book is also about natural selection and the 'arms race' of evolution between cuckoos and the 'hosts' they choose to raise their young. It's a brilliant discussion, evidentially based, of natural selection and it gives insight into the millenial scale of processes involved in survival. It's also a ode (nearly a love letter) to the scientific method.
These huge themes are covered with reference to one species and focused in an area of Cambridgeshire that is less than a square mile - Wicken Fen. This is a masterful work of field naturalism that touches not just on Darwinianism but on climate change, human encroachment on natural habitat, and on the nature of nature.
Professor Davies writes in a detailed, insightful, and entertaining way throughout so laymen like me can grasp the magnitude of his (and his colleague's) observations and conjectures. I reiterate that I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the themes outlined above and to those that possibly do not read too much 'popular science'. This is scientific writing at its best and is accessible to all.
The book is also about natural selection and the 'arms race' of evolution between cuckoos and the 'hosts' they choose to raise their young. It's a brilliant discussion, evidentially based, of natural selection and it gives insight into the millenial scale of processes involved in survival. It's also a ode (nearly a love letter) to the scientific method.
These huge themes are covered with reference to one species and focused in an area of Cambridgeshire that is less than a square mile - Wicken Fen. This is a masterful work of field naturalism that touches not just on Darwinianism but on climate change, human encroachment on natural habitat, and on the nature of nature.
Professor Davies writes in a detailed, insightful, and entertaining way throughout so laymen like me can grasp the magnitude of his (and his colleague's) observations and conjectures. I reiterate that I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the themes outlined above and to those that possibly do not read too much 'popular science'. This is scientific writing at its best and is accessible to all.
January 3, 2021
The front cover features a quotation from David Attenborough "An amazing detective story by one of the country's greatest field naturalists" and the book absolutely delivers on this promise. Nick Davies leads the reader through the fascinating life history of the iconic cuckoo, weaving in snippets of the species' cultural significance and the role it has played in the development of ecology as a field of research.
"Cuckoo: Cheating by nature" describes how the research of the author and colleagues has unpicked the various mysteries of the cuckoo in an accessible way and is undoubtedly a page-turner - I only wish this book had been available when I was studying Zoology!
"Cuckoo: Cheating by nature" describes how the research of the author and colleagues has unpicked the various mysteries of the cuckoo in an accessible way and is undoubtedly a page-turner - I only wish this book had been available when I was studying Zoology!
November 7, 2018
Excellent book, full of fascinating facts I hadn’t realised.
Easily readable.
Easily readable.
June 16, 2023
Surprisingly really good! Good if you like nature and ecological studies.
October 5, 2015
Some very interesting findings in this book, and I learned many things. Some examples:
1) Cuckoos are not the only birds who parasitise other birds' nests - there are quite a number of other birds which do that!
2) Some birds practise partial parasitism (i.e. they raise the majority of their young but drop a few eggs from their brood into other birds' nests).
3) Cuckoos have "favourite hosts" (i.e. they tend to select only certain species to parasitise).
4) There are different "races" of cuckoo, and each appears to be highly specialised in their parasitising habits.
5) Some birds have developed "signatures" (i.e. unique patterns) on their eggs to help them distinguish their own eggs from cuckoo eggs.
6) Cuckoos, in return, have also developed similar-looking "signatures" on their own eggs, as part of their attempts to mimic their hosts' eggs!
7) The "arms race" between cuckoos and their hosts continue.
However...
The questions I really wanted answered, like why certain birds continue to raise parasitic cuckoo chicks to adulthood despite obvious physical differences, were not satisfactorily answered. Also, why is it that blackbirds will not raise cuckoo chicks while other birds would? This went completely unaddressed; there weren't even any theories about why this was so.
What the book is very heavy on are facts. The author sets up a lot of field experiments and presents his findings clearly and succinctly. Everything is easy to read and understand, yet the writing not dry, tedious or boring. I must say I enjoyed reading this quite a lot, even though many questions remain unanswered.
In the middle of the book are several colour photographs, among which are cuckoo eggs compared to host eggs, cuckoo chicks compared to host chicks, etc. One photo showed a huge cuckoo chick being fed by its adult host - the chick was so much bigger than its adopted parent and could even swallow it whole! This made me question all the more why the adult host couldn't possibly tell that the chick wasn't its own!
This book would be good if you want to understand more about how exactly cuckoo parasitism works, and how their hosts get parasitised. It doesn't do such a good job of providing CONVINCING arguments as to why this is so, and the author himself admits that, in many areas of research, we as yet still do not have answers.
1) Cuckoos are not the only birds who parasitise other birds' nests - there are quite a number of other birds which do that!
2) Some birds practise partial parasitism (i.e. they raise the majority of their young but drop a few eggs from their brood into other birds' nests).
3) Cuckoos have "favourite hosts" (i.e. they tend to select only certain species to parasitise).
4) There are different "races" of cuckoo, and each appears to be highly specialised in their parasitising habits.
5) Some birds have developed "signatures" (i.e. unique patterns) on their eggs to help them distinguish their own eggs from cuckoo eggs.
6) Cuckoos, in return, have also developed similar-looking "signatures" on their own eggs, as part of their attempts to mimic their hosts' eggs!
7) The "arms race" between cuckoos and their hosts continue.
However...
The questions I really wanted answered, like why certain birds continue to raise parasitic cuckoo chicks to adulthood despite obvious physical differences, were not satisfactorily answered. Also, why is it that blackbirds will not raise cuckoo chicks while other birds would? This went completely unaddressed; there weren't even any theories about why this was so.
What the book is very heavy on are facts. The author sets up a lot of field experiments and presents his findings clearly and succinctly. Everything is easy to read and understand, yet the writing not dry, tedious or boring. I must say I enjoyed reading this quite a lot, even though many questions remain unanswered.
In the middle of the book are several colour photographs, among which are cuckoo eggs compared to host eggs, cuckoo chicks compared to host chicks, etc. One photo showed a huge cuckoo chick being fed by its adult host - the chick was so much bigger than its adopted parent and could even swallow it whole! This made me question all the more why the adult host couldn't possibly tell that the chick wasn't its own!
This book would be good if you want to understand more about how exactly cuckoo parasitism works, and how their hosts get parasitised. It doesn't do such a good job of providing CONVINCING arguments as to why this is so, and the author himself admits that, in many areas of research, we as yet still do not have answers.
August 19, 2015
I wish that all science books could be this accessible (since I don't have a science background). It's fascinating. The cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of another bird (a smaller one) and takes one of the existing eggs and swallows it and does it all in less than 10 seconds. The cuckoo has to time the laying just right so that the cuckoo is born just before the eggs of the host bird hatch and then the chick dumps all the eggs out of the nest. I'm fascinated and sort of appalled at the image of the poor host bird with its head in the giant maw of the cuckoo's mouth in order to feed the cuckoo chick! And the evolutionary arms race idea that the egg must be the right colour for some host birds or it will get tossed but not for others (the dunnick)! Nature is an amazing thing! Sadly, the author also talks about the declining number of cuckoos despite the numbers of host birds not declining. This book felt like the author is having a whale of a time doing his research (over many decades) and I thought the narrator did a great job with that enthusiasm too.
August 26, 2016
Simply brilliant. I heard Nick Davies talking about cuckoos at Niddfest (a wonderful literary festival based in Nidderdale celebrating nature in writing), and this is where I bought the book. I'm not a scientist, but the story of how observers and scientists of various kinds have pieced together the story of the cuckoo is a fascinating one. So is the account of how cuckoos, their offsprings' inadvertent nurse-maids, and various other creatures who assume similar behaviour patterns, play out their lives. I was left with a great respect not only for the poor duped hosts, but for the cuckoo itself: its lifestyle, its long annual journey to and from Africa is hardly easy. I've learned a huge amount since the day when my interest was sparked by watching an enormous, though only half-grown cuckoo, being fed by its foster-mother, a rather small meadow pipit.
September 6, 2015
Ah, nature, red in tooth and claw! This is an intriguing, readable book for a general audience about nest parasitism in the cuckoo, with references to other nest parasites such as moorhens, honeyguides, and even a species of fish. Be aware that Davies focuses on nest parasitism research, so those who want detailed information about cuckoo speciation, migration, and conservation will be referred to the Further Reading section at the back.
March 12, 2024
Who would've thought a book solely about cuckoos can be so interesting? I love every moment of it. You can really tell the author loves the topic and took great care to present it in this entertaining, thought provoking book. It guides you to think and wonder, and at the end of it, I'm really glad to have read it.
It might be worth telling you why I come across it in the first place. It's on my course reading list (optional, thank god) from the start of the year. I started it back in Feb, then a new lecture block started. Guess what, it's on about animal behaviour, in particularly birds, on kin selection, optimal clutch size, cheating, parent offspring conflict etc, and there's cuckoos as well, on how they deceive hosts with a range of adaptations, and that they've been in an arms race for generation. Basically, what this book is about. It's no surprise as the lecture handouts literally states that they are adapted from a previous course given by Professor Nick Davies... The author himself! How crazy is that!
Back to the book. I love the way everything is introduced. Each chapter starts with a question, an overarching theme, and the author lovingly describes how he and his team carried out experiments to find out. From the secretive habits of the female cuckoo to her hawk like appearance, egg mimicry leading to successful acceptation or rejection, to the frenzied begging of cuckoo chicks, we're guided into the secret world of not just cuckoos, but their hosts as well, in the environment of an entangled, interlinked web of life in the Fens.
Both informative and scientific, yet incredibly personal and intimate, the author showed us the secret life of the cuckoos -- how they successfully tricks the hosts and how the hosts fight back. The field drawings at each chapter makes me smile, and this book makes me want to go over to Wicken Fen someday in spring, to hear the 'cuck-oo!' cries of our harbinger of spring.
Review ends here, the following will be a long ramble...
PS some points of interests
Bitterling fish and mussels displaying cuckoo like host interactions.
'Part time' cheating of birds, sneaking eggs into other nests e.g moorhens
Honeyguides are parasitic: hosts bee-eaters, nests dark tunnels. Chicks hatches and kills the nestmates. Equipped with hook in the beak to stab. Hook present in other species, for siblicide when times are hard and the older one kill the siblings to reduce competition.
Cuckoo migration to Africa, staying more than half of their lifetime in Congo rainforests. Kind of strange to think about it.
Only cuckoo females' genes determine egg pattern so they can mate with any male and still lay very specific eggs.
Some key questions: (for reference in revision)
Why don't cuckoos take care of their own young?
A: migration earlier, don't have to stay for rearing offspring.
What are the mimicries used to deceive hosts?
Adult cuckoo herself -- hawk like markings, hawk-like cry so hosts become defensive against predators instead looking out for parasites.
Eggs: smaller, colouring and pattern alike, signatures very specific. (shown by isolated host populations without cuckoos -- egg gradually less elaborate)
Chicks: frenzied begging calls at a higher frequency, like a whole nest of hungry chicks. Yellow wing flap like whole nest of chicks
How do hosts defend themselves?
A: Imprint on eggs, recognise their own eggs with elaborate markings, signatures -- 'cryptic' . Reject unmatching eggs, higher probability deciding to reject if cuckoo is sighted (there's a cost if host's own eggs is incorrectly rejected, 1 chick less can be raised. But if cuckoo egg not rejected, lose whole nest)
Why don't hosts recognise and reject cuckoo chicks?
Chicks harder to recognise as growth is dramatic. Also, imprinting on chicks is riskier than imprinting on eggs: if young hosts breeding first time get parasitised, they imprint on cuckoo chick and when they reproduce next year with own eggs, thinks their own chicks are strange so reject them.
Moreover, if selected to recognise chicks instead of eggs, valuable time is wasted waiting for eggs to hatch in order to know if that's your offspring or not! Simpler and faster to reject eggs earlier on.
Furthermore, in temperate regions, the host's lifetime is not as long -- only 50% survive to the next breeding season, so might not be able to breed again. Too late to ditch the nest so better to feed whatever is begging in the nest. Compare with tropical hosts, they can afford to be more cautious and reject chicks (but this reflects older arms race where recognition has proceeded towards chick recognition as well).
It might be worth telling you why I come across it in the first place. It's on my course reading list (optional, thank god) from the start of the year. I started it back in Feb, then a new lecture block started. Guess what, it's on about animal behaviour, in particularly birds, on kin selection, optimal clutch size, cheating, parent offspring conflict etc, and there's cuckoos as well, on how they deceive hosts with a range of adaptations, and that they've been in an arms race for generation. Basically, what this book is about. It's no surprise as the lecture handouts literally states that they are adapted from a previous course given by Professor Nick Davies... The author himself! How crazy is that!
Back to the book. I love the way everything is introduced. Each chapter starts with a question, an overarching theme, and the author lovingly describes how he and his team carried out experiments to find out. From the secretive habits of the female cuckoo to her hawk like appearance, egg mimicry leading to successful acceptation or rejection, to the frenzied begging of cuckoo chicks, we're guided into the secret world of not just cuckoos, but their hosts as well, in the environment of an entangled, interlinked web of life in the Fens.
Sitting on a bank seems a fitting way to contemplate Darwin's entangled bank. In the reed fringes along the edge of the lode, several reed warbler nests have been parasitised and the warblers are now unwittingly incubating a cuckoo egg, a living time bomb that will destroy their clutch...
There are many layers too, as I look in the water below me: first I see the reflections of blue sky and of a flock of swifts, high about, scything the air below a billowing white cloud; then I focus on the sheen of the water surface, and bright blue damselflies resting on the lily pads; finally I look through the water, where there are shoals of fish feeding in the mud at the bottom of the lode. And I begin to realise that through all these layers -- the skies above, the water surface, and the depths below -- there are interactions as beautiful and wonderful as those between cuckoos and their hosts.
Both informative and scientific, yet incredibly personal and intimate, the author showed us the secret life of the cuckoos -- how they successfully tricks the hosts and how the hosts fight back. The field drawings at each chapter makes me smile, and this book makes me want to go over to Wicken Fen someday in spring, to hear the 'cuck-oo!' cries of our harbinger of spring.
Review ends here, the following will be a long ramble...
PS some points of interests
Bitterling fish and mussels displaying cuckoo like host interactions.
'Part time' cheating of birds, sneaking eggs into other nests e.g moorhens
Honeyguides are parasitic: hosts bee-eaters, nests dark tunnels. Chicks hatches and kills the nestmates. Equipped with hook in the beak to stab. Hook present in other species, for siblicide when times are hard and the older one kill the siblings to reduce competition.
Cuckoo migration to Africa, staying more than half of their lifetime in Congo rainforests. Kind of strange to think about it.
Only cuckoo females' genes determine egg pattern so they can mate with any male and still lay very specific eggs.
Some key questions: (for reference in revision)
Why don't cuckoos take care of their own young?
A: migration earlier, don't have to stay for rearing offspring.
What are the mimicries used to deceive hosts?
Adult cuckoo herself -- hawk like markings, hawk-like cry so hosts become defensive against predators instead looking out for parasites.
Eggs: smaller, colouring and pattern alike, signatures very specific. (shown by isolated host populations without cuckoos -- egg gradually less elaborate)
Chicks: frenzied begging calls at a higher frequency, like a whole nest of hungry chicks. Yellow wing flap like whole nest of chicks
How do hosts defend themselves?
A: Imprint on eggs, recognise their own eggs with elaborate markings, signatures -- 'cryptic' . Reject unmatching eggs, higher probability deciding to reject if cuckoo is sighted (there's a cost if host's own eggs is incorrectly rejected, 1 chick less can be raised. But if cuckoo egg not rejected, lose whole nest)
Why don't hosts recognise and reject cuckoo chicks?
Chicks harder to recognise as growth is dramatic. Also, imprinting on chicks is riskier than imprinting on eggs: if young hosts breeding first time get parasitised, they imprint on cuckoo chick and when they reproduce next year with own eggs, thinks their own chicks are strange so reject them.
Moreover, if selected to recognise chicks instead of eggs, valuable time is wasted waiting for eggs to hatch in order to know if that's your offspring or not! Simpler and faster to reject eggs earlier on.
Furthermore, in temperate regions, the host's lifetime is not as long -- only 50% survive to the next breeding season, so might not be able to breed again. Too late to ditch the nest so better to feed whatever is begging in the nest. Compare with tropical hosts, they can afford to be more cautious and reject chicks (but this reflects older arms race where recognition has proceeded towards chick recognition as well).
June 15, 2022
My first attempt to read a monography about a single species. It's been a good one to start - easy reading, engaging and getting to depths of the known and unknown in the world of cuckoos and other birds with similar habits. The author obviously relies on his own research and discoveries from other scientists, but is using a relatively simple language allowing everyone to understand the subject. There are no graphs presented in the book, just some drawings and photos for illustrating the text.
I liked the different angles author is looking at cuckoos, not just from ecological perspective, but also from literature, myths, history. Cuckoo is a common and well known bird, so there are a lot of poems, songs and common sayings involving cuckoos. Depending on people understanding of the world around them, perception and thoughts of why and how cuckoo lays her eggs in other birds nest have changed too. Science comes in only later, slowly unfolding the secrets and asking new questions yet to be answered.
I liked the different angles author is looking at cuckoos, not just from ecological perspective, but also from literature, myths, history. Cuckoo is a common and well known bird, so there are a lot of poems, songs and common sayings involving cuckoos. Depending on people understanding of the world around them, perception and thoughts of why and how cuckoo lays her eggs in other birds nest have changed too. Science comes in only later, slowly unfolding the secrets and asking new questions yet to be answered.
July 29, 2021
Excellent natural history book, by a Cambridge University academic who has studied cuckoos at Wicken Fen, the National Trust’s oldest Nature Reserve in Cambridgeshire, U.K. for the past 30 years.
Although the book is based on the author’s research, and covers world-side studies into cuckoos and other species with similar parasitic habits, it is not a dry scientific study; nor is it just one of those lyrical descriptions of the natural world so much in vogue at present. I found it totally fascinating, because, as the author says:
‘I want not only to discover how cuckoos behave, I want to explain why they behave the way they do.’
Sadly, the final chapter has to describe the catastrophic decline in Cuckoo numbers in recent years, and try to give some explanation. We have to hope that somehow, this can be reversed, if we are not to lose the iconic messenger of spring’s arrival from our lives.
Although the book is based on the author’s research, and covers world-side studies into cuckoos and other species with similar parasitic habits, it is not a dry scientific study; nor is it just one of those lyrical descriptions of the natural world so much in vogue at present. I found it totally fascinating, because, as the author says:
‘I want not only to discover how cuckoos behave, I want to explain why they behave the way they do.’
Sadly, the final chapter has to describe the catastrophic decline in Cuckoo numbers in recent years, and try to give some explanation. We have to hope that somehow, this can be reversed, if we are not to lose the iconic messenger of spring’s arrival from our lives.
July 17, 2018
I stumbled upon this by accident looking for an unrelated book, but it turned out to be a real treat. Very thoroughly researched and well written, this gives a fascinating insight into cuckoo bird behavior and specifically their brood parasitism. Brood parasitism is not even a term I was familiar with and had no clue how widespread this is. Parts of this ritual are pretty brutal and even sad, but overall it is fascinating what these creatures go through to preserve their species. And also how much there is still to learn about these birds and their environments.
I think this book is a great reminder that natural selection and evolution are actually a lot more amazing and awe-inspiring than any divine creation or "miracle" story could ever be.
I think this book is a great reminder that natural selection and evolution are actually a lot more amazing and awe-inspiring than any divine creation or "miracle" story could ever be.
May 30, 2021
Excellent book to understand how evolution works.
Author has taken examples of cuckoos and other parasitic species of birds to explain how the theory of natural selection is working.
The book describes all past and present work done on cuckoos along with the author's own work which helps us to understand the evolution and reasons for various types of markings and patterns on birds' eggs. It also explains why cockoos appearence look like hawks.
It covers many other details and tricks played by cuckoos ...right from egg laying in the host nest to raising of cuckoo chicks by host parents.
Overall its a great book!!!
Author has taken examples of cuckoos and other parasitic species of birds to explain how the theory of natural selection is working.
The book describes all past and present work done on cuckoos along with the author's own work which helps us to understand the evolution and reasons for various types of markings and patterns on birds' eggs. It also explains why cockoos appearence look like hawks.
It covers many other details and tricks played by cuckoos ...right from egg laying in the host nest to raising of cuckoo chicks by host parents.
Overall its a great book!!!
April 29, 2019
If you want a better understanding of natural selection then do yourself a favour and read this book. I certainly learned a great deal about the variety that exists within the cuckoo species. Neither does it focus exclusively on cuckoos but draws upon research by naturalists on other birds, examining how pre-existing traits - such as sibling competition for food - become 'established' traits within a species.
March 29, 2021
A detailed account of the extraordinary and morally-questionable lengths both cuckoos and cuckoo researchers will go to to achieve success.
Surprisingly beautiful and poetic throughout, this book renewed my excitement for long summer afternoons of birdwatching.
Every paragraph was so interesting and engaging that I became a total bore to those around me while reading this, due to my constant barrage of unsolicited "hey, did you know...?" statements.
Surprisingly beautiful and poetic throughout, this book renewed my excitement for long summer afternoons of birdwatching.
Every paragraph was so interesting and engaging that I became a total bore to those around me while reading this, due to my constant barrage of unsolicited "hey, did you know...?" statements.
March 28, 2023
Perhaps the most comprehensive look possible into the breeding habits of the common cuckoo. Masterfully written after years of painstaking research, with much personality shining through in the final paragraphs.
My only complaint - and there is only one - is that this book sometimes felt a little too heavy when explaining the results of experiments. Impeccable detail was included, which can be both a strength and a weakness.
My only complaint - and there is only one - is that this book sometimes felt a little too heavy when explaining the results of experiments. Impeccable detail was included, which can be both a strength and a weakness.
July 1, 2019
A wonderfully written book by the unquestionable expert on this field. I used it as a reference book whilst researching the coevolution of the cuckoo with its prey species, and found it to be invaluable. It is clearly written and presented, in a way that is often lost in the more formal peer-reviewed scientific literature itself.
June 4, 2020
A fantastic book on the intricate life of the Cuckoo. Whether you are bird watcher, nature lover or are ‘just’ familiar with the name of the bird, you will enjoy the fascinating facts & learning about one of our most iconic species in Great Britain.
After studying Cuckoo’s for more than 30years, there can’t be many more people more qualified than Nick Davies, on his chosen subject.
After studying Cuckoo’s for more than 30years, there can’t be many more people more qualified than Nick Davies, on his chosen subject.
March 11, 2021
For the most part I found this book fascinating. It is a "science" book so there's a good bit of research jargon that I might or might not have skimmed over but for the most part this was a very enjoyable, educational book, that held my interest.
February 1, 2023
Behaviour scientist enumerates his encounter and curiosities regarding the common cuckoo and evolutionary arms race of brood parasitism. For a non fiction it is rivetting and easily likened by nature enthusiasts, particularly bird watchers for whom I recommend this as a must read!
August 18, 2023
Great book. Nice balance of personal stories from feild work, historical discovery, and current knowledge. It really gives you a feel for the life of a cuckoo bird. Tricking other birds to raise your babies sounds like more work than just raising your babies yourself!
February 11, 2019
Fascinating look at a species that "cheats" at the rules of raising offspring.
December 8, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it has easily been one of the easiest natural history book for me to read. Nick Davies passion shines through throughout the entire book and easily pulled me in.
August 30, 2020
Wonderful book. The author has so much fun playing at investigating his fascinating subject
January 31, 2021
A really interesting and extremely well-written book. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in ornithology or natural history.
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