Thanks to a matriarchal gene, this bird can trick others into caring for its eggs

Cuckoo finches can lay eggs in a variety of colors to match different species. Once hatched, the chicks are often larger than the host chicks.The label “parasite” might bring to mind images of hookworms, leeches, or ticks. However, the African cuckoo finch is a different kind of freeloader. These birds like to dump their parenting responsibilities onto other birds.

Cuckoo finches are not actually cuckoos, despite their name. The term refers to the shared behavior of egg mimicry with some cuckoo species, most notably the. The small, slender bird is an obligate parasite, meaning it relies on this behavior to survive. Different cuckoo finches target different species, too. Some lay blue eggs with brown specks to match the eggs of the red-faced cisticola, while others lay mottled pink eggs to match the zitting cisticola.

To conduct this study, the study authors worked with research collaborators, field assistants, and local farmers in Zambia in East Africa to collect nest observation data. They then processed the field reports and DNA samples from cuckoo finches to analyze the sequences. “In the process of being able to keep all these special signature adaptations…the cuckoo finches have, in a sense, put themselves in something of a potential evolutionary dead end,” says Tong. “For that particular strategy to work, it means that they lose the benefits of the evolution of sexual reproduction.”

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