Is the cuckoo a fisherman's helper or a farmer's helper?

With the coming of the solar term in Grain Rain, cuckoo began to sing. The sound of "cuckoo, cuckoo" is very similar to the pronunciation of "cuckoo, cuckoo", as if urging people to sow beside it.

Rhododendrons live in forests in mountainous areas, hills and plains, and sometimes appear on tall trees near farmland and residential areas. It mainly feeds on Lepidoptera larvae such as Dendrolimus punctatus, five poisonous moths and pine needle dead leaf moths. They also eat locusts, walking beetles, kowtowing insects, bees and other insects. Distributed in western China to India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and South China.

The cuckoo will imitate the eagle to occupy the nest and lay eggs.

According to a paper published in the British journal Nature Ecology Evolution, female cuckoos (also called cuckoos) will "cunningly" imitate eagles to fool reed warblers. It is found that after laying eggs in reed warbler's nest, female cuckoos will imitate the sound of eagles, distract reed warbler's attention and reduce the probability of finding cuckoo eggs parasitic in the nest.

In the previous cognition, the male cuckoo's cry was mainly used to swear "territorial sovereignty"-only the male cuckoo can make the well-known "cuckoo" sound, but the role of the female cuckoo's cry (different from the male cuckoo's cry, which sounds like laughter) has never been known. However, this sound is similar to that of sparrow hawk (the natural enemy of reed warbler).

This time, scientists from Cambridge University in England studied why female cuckoos sing openly after laying eggs in the host nest, because generally speaking, this will bring them the risk of "exposure of evil deeds".

In the experiment, the researchers recorded and played the calls of male and female cuckoos, sparrows and non-threatening control group (gray-spotted dove) to reed warblers, and observed their behaviors. It was found that reed warbler had the same alert response to the calls of female cuckoo and sparrow hawk, and they shifted their attention from bird eggs to their own safety. But they don't respond to the calls of male cuckoos and turtledoves.

Then, the research team played these different calls to another kind of bird (tit), which is the prey of sparrow hawk, but not the host of cuckoo. Tits also have the same reaction to the calls of female cuckoos and sparrows, which proves that the similarity between female cuckoos and sparrows has aroused vigilance.

This study shows that this "cunning" and gender-specific call is an important part of the cuckoo's parasitic lifestyle.

People's Network-Grain Rain Day in the Sound of Bugu

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People's Network-Cuckoo will imitate the eagle's call to occupy the nest and lay eggs.