Deaf cuckoo - description, habitat, interesting facts

There is hardly a person who has not heard the crowing of this bird. When spring comes or the beginning of summer, cuckoos immediately make themselves felt. Their twittering can be seen in city parks and other areas with vegetation. Hearing a bird’s voice is not the same as observing its behavior. Today we look at the key points affecting these representatives of the group. Let's start.

Description

1. The deaf cuckoo differs from the ordinary one not only in external data, but also in voice. Also, these birds in their overall features are slightly smaller, they grow up to a maximum of 32 cm. With a body weight of 150 g. and wingspan of about 56 cm.
2. As for lifestyle and behavior, in particular, when an individual is in a calm state, it does not lift its tail, but, on the contrary, lowers it. When the bird begins to sing, it holds its wings in a relaxed state, the tail remains lowered as before.
3. By color characteristics, females only slightly differ from individuals of male gender. The ocher shade in female representatives is poorly expressed in the neck. The upper part is dark, as if gray, in the color of the slate. In the sternum and abdominal region, strips are present. The area under the tail is yellow with a slight buffy reflection, and a large number of stripes are missing.
4. In these birds, white feathers are present in the area of ​​wing bending, while in ordinary representatives of the family, these zones are colored with speckles. Females can be red with a motley top, so they visually look dark. Not just one shade, but many-sided.
5. In adults, the beak at the base is yellow, as well as legs with an orbital ring. The irises are brown. Young representatives of the family of color mostly do not. They are only contrasting, white with brownish. The area of ​​the neck and chin is painted in a dark tone. Dark spots may be observed in the crown area.

Habitat

1. The individuals of the breed species under discussion live in the vastness of our homeland. They are found in large numbers in the Arkhangelsk region, Chukotka and Kamchatka, Sakhalin, as well as the Kirov region. Individuals live in Japan and Mongolia.
2. Individuals are found in Asia, New Guinea, Australia, Karelia. Representatives of the species are found in the Moscow region and the Volga region. In general, their habitat is very extensive, it is difficult to distinguish a specific region to which the bird is not involved.

Lifestyle

1. Represented individuals prefer to live mainly in mixed and taiga forests. In rare cases, the considered birds were seen in the forest-steppe, forest-tundra and mountain wilderness. The main difference between such individuals from ordinary cuckoos is that they practically do not inhabit the anthropogenic and mosaic landscapes.
2. The presented individuals simply avoid open areas even during migrations. Males of this species fly much less in open areas, unlike males of an ordinary cuckoo. As for the diet, it is practically no different from the usual for us individuals.
3. Among the individuals represented, parasitism is also developed. Deaf cuckoos toss their eggs mainly into the nests of the froth. It was not possible to study how the female of the presented species behaves at this time. It is worth noting that such cuckoos have very small white eggs with a red spot.
4. As a result, the raising of chicks in such an area is carried out by flyweeds, shade shirts and taloviks. The behavior of the chick is almost exactly the same as that of an ordinary cuckoo. It is worth noting that in the first case, young animals have a darker pharynx in color. The incubation period is up to 2 weeks.After this, the chicks are fed for about another 16 days. After another 2 weeks, the young growth already flies from the nest.

Breeding

1. Do not forget that the considered individuals are nesting parasites. This is a characteristic feature of almost all species that relate to cuckoos. Often, the breeding season falls at the beginning of summer.
2. Cuckoos toss their eggs to sparrows, heads, zarnikas and similar birds. After only 2 weeks, young animals are born. Moreover, cuckoo chicks throw other chicks and even eggs from foster parents.
3. Moreover, adults do not even understand that they are raising someone else's chick. They take care of him and feed him.

Represented individuals are in a sense unique. For a long time they were considered doubles of the usual cuckoo and did not stand out as a separate species. However, such birds do not have a close kinship. They are only similar in type of reproduction and in appearance. However, wintering places and diet vary greatly.