Video evidence that cuckoos farm their hosts by ejecting nestlings

new publication
Author

Zhang et al.

Published

April 8, 2024

A video recording of a Daurian redstart nest from a population in NE China showed that a common cuckoo ejected all the host nestlings. When the redstart then produced a new nest, it was parasitized by the cuckoo. These observations provide circumstantial evidence for “farming behaviour” by a brood parasite. (Zhang, Santema, Li, Deng, and Kempenaers 2024)

Photo by Jinggang Zhang

Photo by Jinggang Zhang
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References

Zhang, J., P. Santema, J. Li, W. Deng, and B. Kempenaers. 2024. Video evidence that cuckoos farm their hosts by ejecting nestlings. Ecology and Evolution 14.