Mondo Knows Facts
Cuckoo eggs imitate their host's pattern
Different cuckoo lineages lay eggs that match reed warbler or dunnock clutches Females specialise on one host species and the egg pattern follows over generations. Hosts reject odd looking eggs, so the mimicry is under constant pressure. A newly hatched cuckoo pushes other eggs and chicks out of the nest. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: birds, parasitism, evolution
Cuckoo eggs imitate their host's pattern: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Different cuckoo lineages lay eggs that match reed warbler or dunnock clutches. The figure is taken from British Trust for Ornithology, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.