In the miombo woodland of southern Zambia, a pair of Fork-tailed Drongos tend to their nest. Within a sparsely woven cup slung between two thin branches lie three pale cream eggs, each one marked with tan speckles. Suddenly a flash of grey appears as a female African Cuckoo darts towards the nest. With raucous alarm calls, the drongos attack the cuckoo as she hunches over the nest for a few seconds, surrounded by a flurry of feathers and wings. Then, as quickly as she came, the cuckoo shoots off. The drongos inspect their clutch – it still contains three identical eggs.
Little do they know that in the chaos the cuckoo removed one of their eggs and laid one of her own in its place. In about two weeks’ time the cuckoo’s egg will hatch and the chick, blind and naked, will push the remaining two drongo eggs out of the nest. Now the only chick in the nest, the imposter will be the sole recipient of the food brought by the unsuspecting drongo parents.
The African Cuckoo’s tactic of offloading the costs of parenthood onto another species, termed ‘brood parasitism’, is rare; only one per cent of bird species rely on this strategy. But sub-Saharan Africa is particularly rich in brood-parasitic bird species. Cuckoos, honeyguides, whydahs, indigobirds and the Cuckoo Finch all avoid parental care by tricking other species, the ‘hosts’, into incubating their eggs and raising their chicks.
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Esta historia es de la edición May/June 2024 de African Birdlife.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
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Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.