Cuckoo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Cuckoo (disambiguation).
Cuckoos

Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae
Vigors, 1825
Genera

See text.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Cuculidae

The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos (family Musophagidae, sometimes treated as a separate order, Musophagiformes). Some zoologists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, though it is now usually placed in an order of its own, Opisthocomiformes. The taxonomy of this enigmatic species, however, remains in some dispute.

The cuckoo family, in addition to those species named as such, also includes the roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae respectively.

Contents

  • 1 Morphology
  • 2 Behaviour
    • 2.1 Breeding
    • 2.2 Diet
  • 3 Systematics
    • 3.1 Subfamily Cuculinae
    • 3.2 Subfamily Phaenicophaeinae
    • 3.3 Subfamily Coccyzinae
    • 3.4 Subfamily Neomorphinae
    • 3.5 Subfamily Centropodinae
    • 3.6 Subfamily Crotophaginae
  • 4 References
  • 5 External links

[edit] Morphology

Cuckoos are birds of variable size with slender bodies, long tails and strong legs. Most occur in forests, but some prefer more open country. Most are insect eaters, with hairy caterpillars, which are avoided by many birds, being a speciality. Cuckoos range in size from the Little Bronze Cuckoo, at 17 g and 15 cm (6 inches), to the Channel-billed Cuckoo, at 630 g (1.4 lbs) and 63 cm (25 inches).

Cuckoo genera differ in the number of primary wing feathers as below.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

This Reed Warbler is raising the young of a Common Cuckoo, the best-known cuckoo

Many of the Old World species and some New World species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds. The best-known example is the European Common Cuckoo. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier than the host's, and the cuckoo chick grows faster; in most cases the chick evicts the eggs or young of the host species. The chick has no time to learn this behavior, so it must be an instinct passed on genetically. The mother still feeds the cuckoo chick as if it were her own, the chick's open mouth serving as a sign stimulus for the host to feed it.[1]

Female parasitic-cuckoos seem to specialize and lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of their chosen host. This has also been aided by natural selection, as some birds are able to distinguish cuckoo eggs from their own, leading to those eggs least like the host's being thrown out of the nest.[1] Parasitic cuckoos are grouped into gentes, with each gens specializing in a particular host. There is some evidence that the gentes are genetically different from one another.

The roadrunners, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis all build their own nests, as do most American cuckoos. Most of these species nest in trees or bushes, but the coucals lay their eggs in nests on the ground or in low shrubs. These large tropical cuckoos are capable of taking vertebrate prey such as lizards.

Non-parasitic cuckoos, like most other non-passerines, lay white eggs, but many of the parasitic species lay coloured eggs to match those of their passerine hosts.

[edit] Diet

The arboreal types are insectivorous; the larger, ground types also feed variously on snakes, lizards, small rodents, and other birds, which they bludgeon with their strong bills.

The cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from the call of the Common Cuckoo, which is also familiar from cuckoo clocks.

[edit] Systematics

Unassigned

[edit] Subfamily Cuculinae

Brood-parasitic cuckoos.

[edit] Subfamily Phaenicophaeinae

Malkohas and couas.

[edit] Subfamily Coccyzinae

American cuckoos.

[edit] Subfamily Neomorphinae

Typical ground-cuckoos.

[edit] Subfamily Centropodinae

Coucals.

[edit] Subfamily Crotophaginae

Anis.