Cuckoos | Cuculidae

Koekoeken | Cucos

Most species do not raise their own young: in a few seconds the female lays a single egg in the nest of a much smaller bird and removes one of the host's eggs as she goes. A female is tied to one host species and lays eggs that match it in colour and marking; the shell is thick and incubation short, so her chick hatches first. It grows far beyond its foster parents and either heaves the remaining eggs over the rim of the nest or simply commandeers everything that is brought in. There is no pair bond and no care of the nest: the adults often leave the breeding grounds in midsummer, well before the young, which set off alone some weeks later.