Why Should the Cuckoo Disguise?

In the UK, most of the cuckoo gray and brown. Sometimes this bird looks like a hawk. But others have a reddish brown plumage similar to a kestrel bird.

Scientists from Cambridge University, England, studied the evolution plumage color of cuckoo. They studied the reaction of reed warbler hopefully cuckoo bird who tried to disguise and infiltrate into the nest and lay eggs. This strategy is intended to maintain its population.

Cuckoo bird (Cacomantis sepulcratis). (Picture from: http://animal.discovery.com/)

Reed warbler will try to fend off the coming of the cuckoo has a color similar to its neighbors. Cuckoo often know this and develop the fur with a second color in order to infiltrate into the reed warbler nests.

"Cuckoo plumage evolved alternative to sneak into other birds nests," said Professor Nick Davies told Dailymail, last Friday (August 3, 2012). Cuckoo disguised behavior explains why many species of birds that use mimicry and develop various forms of camouflage.

Other researchers Rose Thorogood, said the cuckoo behavior led to unrest in the world of birds, especially those that are laying eggs. Other birds become anxious and suspicious. Therefore, they must continue to observe the presence of cuckoo by spying on his neighbors. "They not only learn from experience, but of what is going on around them," said Thorogood.

Cuckoo bird eggs. (Picture from: http://io9.com/)

Despite the crafty and unsettling, the behavior is actually disguised cuckoo is one way to survive. This bird mimicry to develop methods to maintain its population dropped drastically last quarter century.

There are various reasons cuckoo population decline. Of the decline in the number of caterpillars due to forest destruction in the UK until the destruction of habitat on African soil, so the birds can not get through the winter. *** [DAILYMAIL | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3963]

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