the cuckoo-finch ( anomalospiza imberbis ) , also known as the parasitic weaver or cuckoo weaver , is a small passerine bird now placed in the family viduidae with the indigobirds and whydahs .

it occurs in grassland in africa south of the sahara .

the male is mainly yellow and green while the female is buff with dark streaks .

the eggs are laid in the nests of other birds .

cuckoo - finch

the preferred habitats for cuckoo finch are : woodlands and grasslands . the cuckoo finch is also at home in wetland and bushveld areas .
the cuckoo finch is a southern african bird that belongs to the viduidae bird family group which includes birds such as whydahs , indigobirds , cuckoo finch .
cuckoo finch ( anomalospiza imberbis fam . viduidae ) kruger park birds & birding .
in terms of distribution of the cuckoo finch in the kruger national park you may not see it in all areas . cuckoo finch : see above distribution map .
the cuckoo finch takes on more than a single mate ( it is bigamous ) .
this outraged tawny - flanked prinia has just seen a cuckoo finch near its nest .
a cuckoo finch chick about to fledge from the nest of a red - faced cisticola .
cuckoo - finch ( anomalospiza imberbis ) is a species of bird in the viduidae family .
rusty - breasted cuckoo , cacomantis sepulcralis , is split from brush cuckoo , cacomantis variolosus .
female cuckoo finch and female southern red bishop . but which is which ? claire spottiswoode , author provided
image : cuckoo finch chick sitting in the nest of its foster parents . courtesy of claire spottiswoode .
the cuckoo finch is mainly found in light and densely wooded forests , where there are mopane trees .
you will not see cuckoo finch in flocks . the bird prefers to act singly or in pairs .
museum specimens indicate historical distributions . the map below shows locations from which museum specimens of cuckoo - finch were collected . you can see more information on the individual museum specimens of cuckoo - finch here .
cuckoo finch , midmar game reserve , kwazulu - natal , south africa . [ photo alan manson © ]
the cuckoo finch ( latin name anomalospiza imberbis ) is described in roberts birds of southern africa , 7th edition . this bird has a unique roberts number of 820 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 1081 also a picture of the cuckoo finch on page 1009 . the cuckoo finch belongs to the family of birds classified as viduidae . according to the percy fitzpatrick institute of african ornithology the cuckoo finch is also known by these other names : parasitic weaver , cuckoo weaver .
a cuckoo finch in sheep ' s clothing : cuckoo finches in africa have adopted a unique disguise to help them lay their eggs in other birds ' nests .
the cuckoo finch is neither endemic or near endemic to the kruger national park . it is however a rare summer resident
) . he identified the young as that of a cuckoo finch only after roberts had photographed young cuckoo finches in nests of prinias and cisticolas . chicks thought to have been of
the female cuckoo finch ( l ) has evolved to be nearly identical to the harmless female red bishop ( r ) .
they reject foreign eggs from their nest at a higher rate after they have seen either a female cuckoo finch or a female bishop .
the outside circle shows eggs laid by tawny - flanked prinia females , and the inside circle shows eggs laid by different cuckoo finch females .
moluccan cuckoo , cacomantis heinrichi , is split from brush cuckoo , cacomantis variolosus . [ cuculidae , pelecanae i , 2 . 13 ]
some of the different types of patterns found in cuckoo finch eggs , which mimic african tawny - flanked prinia eggs . courtesy of claire spottiswoode .
the outside circle shows eggs laid by tawny - flanked prinia females , and the inside circle shows eggs laid by different cuckoo finch females . claire spottiswoode
a three day old cuckoo finch chick ( left ) with a tawny - flanked prinia hatchling ( right ) which is about to die of starvation .
the cuckoo - finch has a scattered distribution across sub - saharan africa where it occurs in open or lightly wooded grassland , especially near damp areas .
so were the prinia really deceived by the cuckoo finches’ mimetic plumage ? to answer this , we carried out one last experiment . we presented a female cuckoo finch , a female southern red bishop or a male southern red bishop model near a prinia nest . after that , we replaced a prinia egg with an experimental egg to simulate egg laying by a real cuckoo finch .
to answer this question , first we measured and compared the colour and pattern of cuckoo finches’ plumage to those of vidua finches ( the cuckoo finch’s closest relatives ) and weavers at the natural history museum at tring , uk .
as mentioned in the above paragraphs , cuckoo finches lay in the nests of prinias and cisticolas in grassland and marshes and in savanna and open woodland . these hosts rear the young cuckoo finch , usually the only chick in the brood that fledges . this is because the cuckoo finch , when she lays her egg , removes the host ' s eggs , thereby leaving her own young brood parasite as the only chick in the nest . occasionally , a host lays after the cuckoo finch has done so , and it may then rear its own young along with the parasitic nestling . sometimes , more than one cuckoo finch egg is deposited in the nest and two chicks survive and fledge . the survival of more than one chick , including either a host chick or another brood - parasitic one , indicates that the young cuckoo finch does not evict its nestmates .
so were the prinia really deceived by the cuckoo finches & apos ; mimetic plumage ? to answer this , we carried out one last experiment . we presented a female cuckoo finch , a female southern red bishop or a male southern red bishop model near a prinia nest . after that , we replaced a prinia egg with an experimental egg to simulate egg laying by a real cuckoo finch .
our work shows that the cuckoo finch has evolved another novel strategy of attack , whereby it defeats both sensory and cognitive components of host rejection behaviour .
the treatment of darwin ' s finches has been updated . the warbler finch , certhidea olivacea , has been split into green warbler finch , certhidea olivacea , and gray warbler finch , certhidea fusca . [ thraupidae , thraupid group , 2 . 12 ]
to answer this question , first we measured and compared the colour and pattern of cuckoo finches & apos ; plumage to those of vidua finches ( the cuckoo finch’s closest relatives ) and weavers at the natural history museum at tring , uk .
this diversity of mimicry has evolved because hosts fight back , since they pay a high price if they are tricked by a cuckoo finch . the young finch usually hatches a day or two in advance of the host chicks , which typically only survive a day or two before starving to death , while the cuckoo finch obtain ' s the lion ' s share of the food the host parents bring to the nest .
cuckoo finch eggs ( right column ) mimic their eggs of their hosts ( left column ) . the top two rows of eggs are from red - faced cisticola nests and the bottom four rows are from tawny - flanked prinia nests . tawny - flanked prinias lay a range of egg colours and patterns to foil cuckoo finch mimicry .
it would be great to know whether other parasites have a similar strategy to the cuckoo finch , and whether there is any way hosts can fight back .
cuckoo finches change their appearance with the season as a result of feather abrasion .
african tawny - flanked prinias are the targets of cuckoo finches in southern zambia .
having highly variable eggs among individuals makes it hard for each female cuckoo finch to match many of the egg types that different prinias lay ,
explained dr stevens .
the description for the cuckoo finch ( latin name anomalospiza imberbis ) can be found in the 7th edition of the roberts birds of southern africa . the anomalospiza imberbis can be quickly identified by its unique roberts identification number of 820 and the detailed description of this bird is on page 1081 . you will find a picture of the cuckoo finch on page 1009 .
this is unfortunate for the cuckoo finch – and we suspect this is because the rate of parasitism is consistently high at this site , making this strategy worthwhile for the crafty prinias .
the film clip shows a nest of the most frequent host of the cuckoo finch , the tawny - flanked prinia , which has an extravagantly diverse range of eggs . the prinia parent has recognised that an egg in its nest is that of a cuckoo finch , and proceeds to eject it by spearing it on the end of its beak and carrying it away .
the researchers took 999 randomly chosen pairs of 300 prinia and 84 cuckoo finch eggs in their study population , plugged them into the model and simulated egg rejection using different host - to - parasite egg ratios . they saw that the cuckoo finch eggs are less likely to be ejected when they comprise a greater proportion of the nest , especially if the mimicry is good .
cuckoo finch eggs mimic those of their hosts , and the same cuckoo finch female commonly lays two or more eggs in the same host nest . in this paper we show that this increases her chances of tricking hosts into accepting the parasitic eggs as their own . by increasing the proportion of foreign eggs in the clutch , cuckoo finches appear to be able to take advantage of uncertainty in the sensory and cognitive processes that hosts use to distinguish foreign eggs from their own .
the cuckoo finch was discovered to be a brood parasite after v . g . l . van someren , in 1912 , photographed and collected a young bird in the nest of a rattling cisticola (
the nesting habit of cuckoo finch is to use the nest of another bird . the surrogate family then raise the chicks . the bird lays eggs which are white in colour and number between 1 to 3
using model cuckoo finches and model southern red bishops ( a common weaver species at the study site ) , we tested whether the prinias reacted differently towards female cuckoo finches and female southern red bishops , compared to male cuckoo finches and male southern red bishops . unlike females , males of these two species look very different : male cuckoo finches are bright yellow and male southern red bishops are black and red .
left : two prinia eggs and one cuckoo egg ( good mimicry ) . right : one cuckoo egg and two prinia eggs ( poor mimicry ) . courtesy of stevens et al . / nature communications .
the name cuckoo is common to many parasitic bird species that rely upon others to raise their young .
the cuckoo finch does not built its own nest but rather invades the nest of other birds . if the bird does not find an empty nest it will attack the host ( original nest owner ) and displace it
the cuckoo finch in zambia has evolved to be almost indistinguishable from common and harmless female weaver birds , such as the southern red bishop , said dr william feeney , from the australian national university ( anu ) .
we tested these predictions in the tawny - flanked prinia and its parasite , the cuckoo finch . egg appearance ( colour and pattern ) varies greatly among individuals in both host and parasite , but individual females always lay a single egg - type throughout their lives 7 , 8 . cuckoo finches do not target prinia clutches that resemble their own eggs but instead rely on chance matches to succeed 7 . therefore , mimicry can range from very good to poor . a cuckoo finch female commonly lays two eggs in the same host nest 22 ( see below ) .
the cuckoo finch looks a lot more similar to the bishop than its nearest relatives , the vidua finches , suggesting that it has evolved to be able to hang around prinia nests without arousing suspicion ,
he said .
the cuckoo finch , the whydahs and the indigobirds are brood parasites , laying their eggs in the nests of other kinds of songird . the nesting birds , the hosts , rear the young brood parasites along with their own brood .
what is interesting about this situation is that each female cuckoo finch only lays a particular type of egg mimicking a particular host species , and will specialise only on that species , so that within a small area , neighbouring cuckoo finches may look and sound the same , but have hatched from different host nests and lay eggs that mimic that host species . for example , the eggs in the header image above are all cuckoo finch eggs from an area of less than a thousand hectares on our study site in zambia , and come from the nests of three different host species .
unlike the indigobirds and whydahs , which have since split up into numerous species each specialising on a single host species , the cuckoo finch has remained one species comprising several host - specific races . for instance , the cuckoo finches we study in zambia lay their eggs in the nests of the tawny - flanked prinia prinia subflava and at least three cisticola species .
one of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size . for example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird . the cuckoo finch is a small bird about the size of a house sparrow . do not take this relative indicator as anything other than a rough easy to remember indicator . it is not a accurate visualization . the height of the cuckoo finch is about 13 cms and its weight is about 20 gms
researchers found that the cuckoo finches repeatedly targeted the same nests to improve the probability of their eggs being cared for .
the cuckoo - finch typically occurs in pairs or small flocks during the breeding season and larger flocks outside the breeding season . it forages on the ground or perched on the flower heads of grasses or herbs . it feeds mainly on grass seeds .
. female long - tailed paradise - whydahs are attracted to songs of their host , the melba finch , and not to orange - winged pytilia songs ; in aviaries , they sometimes lay when they hear songs of the melba finch . males of this paradise - whydah mimic songs of the melba finch , and in natural conditions the females are attracted to male whydahs giving these songs .
( ed . by t . e . martin & d . m . finch ) . new york : oxford university press .
prinias ' egg colours vary widely but by laying multiple eggs in a nest , cuckoo finches reduce the risk of rejection .
just as expected , we found that the prinias were much more likely to reject the foreign egg after seeing one of the two female species than when they saw a male bird . this showed that they were unable distinguish between the two female species and that the cuckoo’s mimicry is successful , but does not give the cuckoo finch the advantage in the arms race at this site .
, namely the shape of the horny palate and the thick , internally flattened lower mandible , function in breaking and crushing hard seeds . the cuckoo finch ' s crop contains crushed seeds , not intact , hulled ones as do those of the whydahs and indigobirds .
the cuckoo finch has a height of 13 cms and weighs around 20 gms . the head is coloured yellow while the bill is coloured brown . the anomalospiza imberbis has a white coloured throat , brown legs and a yellow coloured back . the eyes are brown .
there are two changes from the sacc . they have changed the name of the diademed plover back to diademed sandpiper - plover and have split the gray - throated warbling - finch , poospiza cabanisi , from red - rumped warbling - finch , poospiza lateralis , with the latter now called buff - throated warbling finch . [ charadriidae , charadriiformes , 2 . 51 thraupidae , core passeroidea v , 2 . 51 ]
host species therefore defend themselves against parasitism by rejecting foreign eggs from their nests , and this selection pressure has resulted in the evolution of superb egg forgeries by cuckoo finches . not only do cuckoo finches closely mimic the colour and pattern of host eggs , but as we have seen , different host - races of cuckoo finches lay different eggs that mimic those of the specific host species they specialise upon . for example , the photo below shows cuckoo finch eggs ( right column ) mimicking the eggs of two different host species ( left column ) : red - faced cisticolas in the first two rows , and tawny - flanked prinias in the last four rows .
our cuckoo finch research focuses on two general questions : exactly how cuckoo finches dupe their hosts into accepting these foreign eggs , and on the genetic mechanisms that allow egg mimicry of different hosts to be evolutionarily maintained . this is a puzzle because we would expect interbreeding among males and females raised by different hosts to cause such specialised adaptations to break down . for more information , see the research page .
cuckoo finches in africa have adopted a unique disguise to help them lay their eggs in other birds ' nests , biologists have found .
the prinias have learned to react aggressively towards the innocent female bishops , which look like female cuckoo finches ,
she said .
the top images show the range of colours and patterns found in prinia eggs , and the proportions of host and foreign eggs used in rejection trials ( ratios of host : foreign eggs ) . lines under the eggs indicate groups originating from the same clutch . the bottom two images show naturally parasitized clutches with one cuckoo finch egg ( left ) or two cuckoo finch eggs ( right ) . both cuckoo finch and host eggs show extensive variation among individuals . prinia eggs have fine lines on them that cuckoo finches do not reproduce ; surprisingly , hosts do not seem to use this fail - safe ‘signature’ in egg rejection decisions . such markings make it easy to distinguish host and parasite eggs . average host egg size for length is 15 . 63 mm ( max = 16 . 98 , min = 14 . 63 ) and breadth is 11 . 42 mm ( max = 11 . 91 , min = 10 . 82 ) from a sample of 40 randomly chosen eggs .
) shells . they have not been observed to double - scratch in the field , nor have captives in an aviary been seen to utilize this method with small grass seeds scattered on sand . the cuckoo finch takes grit and sand , which serve to pulverize hard seeds in the crop ;
cuckoo finches lay multiple eggs in the nests of other birds to make it harder to detect the ' imposters ' , researchers have found .
in all species , there was relatively little phenotypic variation within clutches ( electronic supplementary material , table s1 ) ; however , species differed in the level of among - clutch variation , i . e . polymorphism . we calculated mdp space for each host species and their respective cuckoo finch gens (
cuckoo finches forage on the ground and on erect stems of fruiting heads . they use the bill to crush large seeds , such as sunflower (
the species is a brood parasite , laying its eggs in the nests of cisticolas and prinias . the eggs are white , pale blue or pink with brown , reddish or violet markings . they are 17–17 . 3 mm long and 12 . 5–13 mm wide . the eggs are incubated for 14 days . the young bird fledges after 18 days and remains dependent on its hosts for another 10–40 days . the young of the host bird usually disappear although there have been records of the host ' s nestlings surviving alongside the young cuckoo - finch . sometimes two cuckoo - finch chicks have been found in the same nest .
we used our logistic models of conspecific egg rejection experiments to estimate the proportion of real parasitic eggs likely to be rejected by each host species . we simulated a randomly laying cuckoo finch female by pairing randomly sampled host and cuckoo finch eggs ( of the corresponding gens ) 999 times , and for each pair calculating the phenotypic difference between them for each egg trait . because for red - faced cisticolas the available sample of real cuckoo finch eggs was small ( n = 7 ) , to minimize the risk of identical host–parasite combinations , we chose 50 random host eggs in random order and compared each with a randomly chosen parasitic egg ( thus ensuring a different comparison each time ) , and repeated this process five times , thus generating 250 host–parasite comparisons . we then substituted these standardized values into the rejection models ( reported in the electronic supplementary material , table s3 ) to estimate the probability of egg rejection for each simulated laying event .
you ' re actually more likely to hatch alongside a sibling or half - sibling , since your mother probably laid two eggs in the same host nest . this is not a problem : you ' ll thrive alongside each other . this cuckoo finch chick at left has hatched just before its sibling at right . note the absence of any fine lines ( scribbles ) on the cuckoo finch egg , unlike on tawny - flanked prinia eggs . although these scribbles should be perfect signatures of identifty that reliably inform prinia parents which eggs are their own and which are a parasite ' s , puzzlingly , they often still accept unscribbed eggs .
the cuckoo finch is so similar to the innocent bishops , that the target of the trickery , the tawny - flanked prinia , cannot tell them apart ,
said dr feeney , who did his phd at the anu research school of biology before taking a position at the university of cambridge , united kingdom .
the female african tawny - flanked prinia , a species of warbler , lays eggs in a wide spectrum of colours in an effort to fool cuckoo finches .
an experimental study of co - evolution between the cuckoo , cuculus canorus , and its hosts . ii . host egg markings , chick discrimination and general discussion
this conflict of information can be exploited by a parasitic strategy of repeated laying in the same host nest , such that a parasitic female’s eggs outnumber the host’s own . a simulation model based on our field experimental data demonstrated that a parasite’s eggs are more likely to be accepted if she lays more than one egg in the same host nest , especially when the level of mimicry is also good . this implies a strong adaptive benefit to observed cuckoo finch behaviour : the majority of naturally parasitized nests in the field are composed of clutches in which cuckoo finch eggs are either equal in number to or outnumber host eggs . such repeated targeting of the same nest is unlikely to be explained by a shortage of hosts , as tawny - flanked prinias are abundant at the study site and parasitism levels are only ~ 19 % ( ref . 7 ) . our simulations suggest that approximately a quarter of cuckoo finch breeding attempts have levels of mimicry that afford a benefit from repeated parasitism .
24 g . all are sexually dimorphic . the male cuckoo finch is greenish and yellow . males of the whydahs and indigobirds have extensive black in the breeding plumage , and whydah males have the inner two pairs of rectrices elongated , in contrast to the additional elongated rectrices of the long - tailed male widowbirds in the ploceid genus
here , we show that prinias prioritize a template - based approach to identify foreign eggs , but that they also utilize information about the relative proportions of their own and foreign eggs in making rejection decisions . second , we show that hosts are less likely to reject foreign eggs when they outnumber their own and when the level of mimicry is very good , and correspondingly cuckoo finch eggs are more likely to be accepted under such circumstances . finally , we show that cuckoo finch females have a strategy of repeatedly targeting the same host nests with more than one egg to increase the likelihood of acceptance , and this constitutes a further adaptation by brood parasites to defeat host defences .
the rattling cisticola , intermediate with respect to both strategies of defence , is not currently parasitized at our study site . just as several species potentially suitable as common cuckoo hosts show strong rejection behaviour [ 9 ] , it is likely that the rattling cisticola is a former host that has won the arms race with the cuckoo finch . while some foreign eggs were accepted , experimental eggs were always conspecific and hence likely to be a much closer match to the host clutch than real parasitic eggs ; therefore , this does not preclude consistent rejection of cuckoo finch eggs . if the rattling cisticola is indeed a former host , then implementing both strategies appears to have been a highly successful defence against brood parasitism . ideally , these dual defences would be analysed in a phylogenetic context across a range of hosts to distinguish ancestral from derived levels of defence .
species learn the songs from their foster parents and the birds inherit their mitochondrial genes from their mother . in the first generation , a female indigobird laid an egg in a melba finch nest . the melba finch reared the young indigobird , a female , and the latter became imprinted upon the song of her foster parent . as a breeding adult , she was attracted to and mated with a male paradise - whydah mimic of the melba finch . she was then attracted to nesting melba finches and laid her eggs in their nest , and her hybrid young were reared by the melba finches . the two male whydahs , hybrids in the third generation of this family history , mimicked the songs of the melba finch .
rejection frequency by each host species of real cuckoo finch eggs laid by their respective parasitic gens , based on simulations using logistic models of egg discrimination experiments ( see §2 ) . total frequencies add up to in ( a ) 999 , tawny - flanked prinias , but in ( b ) 250 , red - faced cisticolas ( see §2 ) .
11–12 cm ; 18–21g ( kenya ) , 20–22·5 g ( transvaal ) . small , stocky finch with short tail and short , stubby bill with upper mandible laterally compressed . . .
if female cuckoo finches looked more similar to vidua finches than to weavers , then it would suggest that the cuckoo finch plumage is a product of their shared ancestry . if they looked equally similar to vidua finches and weavers , it would suggest that their plumage has been shaped through shared selection pressures from a shared environment ( for example , having to avoid shared predators ) . however , if they looked more similar to the weavers than the vidua finches , it would suggest that natural selection for mimicry has driven their resemblance .
distribution of cuckoo finch in southern africa , based on statistical smoothing of the records from first sa bird atlas project ( © animal demography unit , university of cape town ; smoothing by birgit erni and francesca little ) . colours range from dark blue ( most common ) through to yellow ( least common ) . see here for the latest distribution from the sabap2 .
cuckoo finches reproduce by stealing something very unusual from other birds : parenting skills . the cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species , hoping their young will blend in and be fed . even though other birds have evolved to detect minute differences between eggs , and will eject foreign eggs from their nests , somehow cuckoo finches get by .
brood parasite , mating system not known , but probably polyg - ynous . lays one to two eggs per nest , removing one or more host eggs . incubation 14 days , fledging 18 days . hosts are warblers of the genera cisticola or prinia , host young usually trampled in nest , rarely reared with parasite young . two cuckoo finch young may be reared together .
widowbirds , in which the change is brought about by moult . female cuckoo finches are streaky brown above and whitish below , similar in appearance to females or non - breeding males of
we specifically looked at cuckoo finches , as there is already good evidence of an evolutionary arms race between it and its primary host in southern zambia , the tawny - flanked prinia .
cuckoo finches , like the iconic cuckoos , are brood parasites who lay their eggs in the nests of other birds , to deceive them into raising the parasitic young as their own .
kozlovic , d . r . , knapton , r . w . & barlow , j . c . 1996 . unsuitability of the house finch as a host of the brown - headed cowbird .
the cuckoo - finch is a small finch - like bird , about 11–13 cm long . it has a short tail , large legs and feet , and a large , deep , conical bill . the adult male has a black bill and a yellow head and underparts . the upperparts are olive - green with black streaks . the yellow areas become increasingly bright prior to the breeding season as the feathers become worn . the adult female is buff with heavy black streaking above and light streaks on the flanks ; its face is largely plain buff and the throat is buff - white .
cuckoo finches live in grassland , shrubby woodland , and grassy marshes and swamps . unlike some of their relatives in the present family , however , they are not associated with human activities .
found in cisticola nests in ethiopia were saved as specimens in the british museum ( natural history ) ; examination of these reveals that they are , in fact , young cuckoo finches .
payne , r . ( 2018 ) . cuckoo - finch ( anomalospiza imberbis ) . in : del hoyo , j . , elliott , a . , sargatal , j . , christie , d . a . & de juana , e . ( eds . ) . handbook of the birds of the world alive . lynx edicions , barcelona . ( retrieved from urltoken on 9 july 2018 ) .
of f . willughby in 1676 , and the
red - breasted long - tailed finch
described by g . edwards in 1747 . aldrovandi ' s paradise - whydah is the bird now known as
the species was described in 1868 by the german ornithologist jean cabanis based on a specimen from east africa , probably from the coast opposite zanzibar . it was initially placed in the genus crithagra but later moved to a genus of its own , anomalospiza . the name of the genus means
anomalous finch
with spiza being a greek word for finch . the specific name imberbis comes from latin and means
beardless
.
the village indigobird similarly exploits small termites when they emerge during the rains . straw - tailed whydahs supplement their diet of small grass seeds with both larval and adult insects , which they catch on the ground . the cuckoo finch has been seen on rare occasions to take insects , sometimes hawking these at dusk . it feeds its young with insects , including caterpillars and wasps ( hymenoptera ) . wilsonçs indigobird (
a particularly interesting case involves the cuckoo finch ( anomalospiza imberbis ) and one its many hosts , the african tawny - flanked prinia ( prinia subflava ) . university of exeter ecologist martin stevens told io9 ,
there ' s an extremely high level of variation from one prinia ' s eggs to another .
some birds ' eggs resemble the surface of mars , while other eggs may be green with brown spots .
anomalospiza imberbis ( cuckoo finch ) koekoekvink [ afrikaans ] ; koekoekswever [ dutch ] ; anomalospize parasite [ french ] ; kuckucksweber [ german ] ; tecelão - parasita [ portuguese ] distribution and habitat occurs in patches across africa’s western coast from guinea to cameroon , with a separate population extending from ethiopia through tanzania , zambia and angola to southern africa . here it is uncommon in swaziland , mpumalanga and surrounding provinces , while…
importantly , the cuckoo has evolved to produce eggs that look similar to the prinia ' s eggs . but rather than seek out prinia nests with eggs that look like its eggs , the cuckoo leaves it all up to chance , laying eggs in seemingly random prinia nests . in response to this mimicry , the prinia , like many other host species , has developed mechanisms to tease out imposter eggs .
davies , n . b . , brooke , m . de l . & kacelnik , a . 1996 . recognition errors and probability of parasitism determine whether reed warblers should accept or reject mimetic cuckoo eggs .
naturally parasitized clutches at our study site during 2007–2009 and 2012–2013 are consistent with the prediction that repeated parasitism should benefit the cuckoo finch : of 62 parasitized prinia nests where the final clutch composition was known ( that is , incubation had begun ) , two - thirds contained either two ( 61 % ) or three ( 5 % ) parasitic eggs laid by the same female ( as assessed phenotypically by the human eye ; cuckoo finch eggs are highly variable and distinctive among individuals for colour and pattern 7 , making it relatively easy to identify eggs as belonging to the same individuals ) . parasitic eggs were in the majority in 68 % of nests ( in 36 of 42 cases , no host eggs were present ) , equal numbers of host and parasitic eggs were present in 19 % of nests , and host eggs made up the majority of the clutch in just 13 % of parasitized nests .
( a ) simulations between 999 random pairs of host and cuckoo finch eggs show that as the proportion of parasitic eggs in the nest increases , they are more likely to be accepted . error bars show ±1 s . e . m . ( b ) the probability of rejection also depends on the level of colour difference between host and parasitic eggs : closely matching eggs are less likely to be rejected when they comprise a greater proportion of the clutch .
surprisingly , we found that the prinias were extremely aggressive to both the harmful female cuckoo finches and harmless southern red bishops – treating both as threats . they were not , however , aggressive to males of either species .
less is known about the breeding behaviour of the cuckoo finch . adults and juveniles of this species form flocks both outside and within the breeding season . when not in a flock , a male sometimes sings at a single site for a few minutes , as has been recorded at lochinvar national park , in zambia , and at harare , in zimbabwe . the male ' s courtship displays , with the wings raised , look more like the nest - displays of
= 55 per group ; resampled mean ± s . e . for prinias = 0 . 651 ± 0 . 002 and for red - faced cisticolas = 0 . 382 ± 0 . 002 ) . correspondingly , cuckoo finch eggs laid in tawny - flanked prinia nests were more polymorphic ( mean ± s . e . = 0 . 547 ± 0 . 015 ) than those laid in red - faced cisticola nests ( 0 . 404 ± 0 . 038 ) (
the broad - tailed paradise - whydah is a southern african bird that belongs to the viduidae bird family group which includes birds such as whydahs , indigobirds , cuckoo finch . the description for the broad - tailed paradise - whydah ( latin name vidua obtusa ) can be found in the 7th edition of the roberts birds of southern africa . the vidua obtusa can be quickly identified by its unique roberts identification number of 863 and the detailed description of this bird is on page 1071 . more
i ' ve incorporated the new paper by burns and racicot ( 2009 ) about tachyphonini . the tachyphonini have been rearranged and gained black - goggled tanager and crimson - breasted finch from the incertae sedis tanagers . [ thraupidae , core passeroidea v , 2 . 15 ]
in europe , whydahs and indigobirds have been kept as cagebirds for centuries , being held in esteem for their song and colourful breeding plumage . renaissance scholar michel de montaigne visited the italian city of florence in 1581 and saw them in the medici aviaries . his description of a finch with
its closest relatives are thought to be the indigobirds and whydahs of the genus vidua . these birds are now usually considered to form a family , viduidae . previously they were treated as a subfamily , viduinae , within either the estrildid finch family , estrildidae , or the weaver family , ploceidae .
in this study , we demonstrate a novel evolutionary tactic at play in these interactions . we have previously shown that the tawny - flanked prinia , the most common host of the cuckoo finch , uses several different features of egg colour and pattern to discriminate between its eggs and those of the cuckoo finch . in this study , we first demonstrated that prinias know the appearance of their own eggs and primarily reject foreign eggs based on whether they deviate from this internal template . this is consistent with past work investigating mechanisms of rejection in hosts of other brood parasites 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 20 . however , we further demonstrated that prinias do not simply reject any eggs that differ sufficiently from an internal template regardless of their frequency . instead , they appear to use both template - recognition and discordancy mechanisms to maximize information about egg identity . the two mechanisms are in conflict when host eggs are outnumbered by mimetic parasitic eggs , such that sensory and cognitive mechanisms disagree . we have shown that under such circumstances , hosts prioritize information from the template - recognition mechanism but require greater colour differences to make the correct decision .
nestling and fledgling whydahs and indigobirds are fed by their foster parents . they crouch , twist the head and neck , wave the head from side to side , and beg with the head turned to one side or even upside - down , in the manner of the young of their estrildid hosts . the nestlings and fledglings are fed with seeds regurgitated by their foster parents . in contrast to the whydahs and indigobirds , the young cuckoo finch begs in an upright posture , without waving the head , and it feeds directly , taking insects held in the fosterer ' s bill .
we carried out fieldwork during january–march 2007–2009 , within a ca 800 ha area on and around musumanene farm ( 16°47′ s , 26°54′ e ) near choma , southern zambia . all hosts build woven nests with a side entrance , stitched among the broad leaves of small herbaceous shrubs ( tawny - flanked prinias and red - faced cisticolas ) , or tucked into the base of a shrub or grass tussock ( rattling cisticolas ) . hosts pay strong fitness costs of parasitism since cuckoo finch hatchlings usually outcompete all host young [ 22 ] . hosts removed foreign eggs by puncturing then ejecting them .
, the cuckoo finch , include the bill , the mouth and the palate . the bill is short and stubby , with the outline straight . the jaw is bent downwards at the frontonasal - maxillary hinge at an angle of about 110 degrees in relation to the jugal . inside the mouth , a thick lateral surface is formed by the edge of the maxilla and a broad ventral protuberance that articulates with the jugal bone . this complex forms a crushing surface . the lower mandible of all of the viduids has a thick , flat rostral flange that is expanded ventrally at its posterior margin .
this paper shows experimentally that adult female cuckoo finches ( at left in photo ) in zambia have evolved to resemble harmless and abundant bishop - birds ( right ) , which should help them to slip past being attacked by host parents while they try to lay their egg . however , hosts are not fooled by this attempted deception , and defend themselves against parasitic cuckoo finches and harmless bishop - birds alike . to our knowledge this is the first time that such “wolf - in - sheep’s - clothing” plumage mimicry has been experimentally shown to exist in any adult bird .
if you ' re an adult female , lay your eggs in exactly the same host species as your mother did . hope that at least some of your eggs will match the host clutch more like nest number 13 on the left , than nest number 15 on the right ( in each case , the egg at far right is that of a cuckoo finch , and the others are those of the tawny - flanked prinia host ) . your egg will therefore have a much better chance of being accepted by the host parents ( the whole lot will probably still get eaten by a snake , though ) .
anticipating sacc decisions , hyphens have been removed from : rufous crab hawk , buteogallus aequinoctialis ; many - colored rush tyrant , tachuris rubrigastra ; crowned slaty flycatcher , empidonomus aurantioatrocristatus ; shear - tailed gray tyrant , muscipipra vetula drab water tyrant , ochthornis littoralis ; short - tailed field tyrant , muscigralla brevicauda ; many - colored chaco finch , saltatricula multicolor ; black - backed bush tanager , cnemoscopus rubrirostris ; long - tailed reed finch , donacospiza albifrons ; and gray - hooded bush tanager , cnemoscopus rubrirostris . i have also removed a hyphen from white - headed marsh tyrant , arundinicola leucocephala , which has been added to the sacc proposal .
we found the latter , which suggested that female cuckoo finches have evolved to mimic weavers . we then conducted two field experiments in southern zambia to test whether we could verify this apparent case of mimicry . this meant months of long days watching these birds from the inside of a hide , which was absolutely brilliant !
has a single clear layer of bone on each side of the dorsal mid - line ; the clear region contrasts with the spotted appearance of the skull of other songbirds , in which two layers of bone are joined by columns and the layers are otherwise separated by a layer of air , the mature skull being pneumatized or
ossified
. nearly all adults have an incompletely pneumatized skull . in yearling indigobirds the skull is pneumatized by about half , individuals two years old and older have the skull more than 70 % pneumatized , and fewer than 5 % of all birds have a fully pneumatized skull . cuckoo finch adults also have an incompletely pneumatized skull .
many brood parasites [ such as cuckoo finches ] and hosts are locked in ongoing evolutionary arms races , with parasites evolving attack strategies to get their eggs accepted - such as egg mimicry - and hosts evolving defences - such as egg rejection ,
explained co - author dr martin stevens from the university of exeter .
using simulations based on the egg rejection models derived from experimental data , we found that prinia–cuckoo finches laying randomly in tawny - flanked prinia nests have an average rejection probability of 0 . 492 ± 0 . 008 ( range 0 . 047–0 . 999 ) , and that the distribution of rejection probabilities was relatively even ( figure 3 a ) . red - faced cisticola–cuckoo finches laying randomly in red - faced cisticola nests have an average rejection probability of 0 . 521 ± 0 . 014 ( range 0 . 001–0 . 795 ) ; thus , very similar on average to prinias , but with a less even distribution ( figure 3 b ) .
we were suspicious that adult female cuckoo finches might be employing aggressive mimicry to get into their host’s nest because they look remarkably similar to another group of species that shares their grassy habitats : females of the several common species of weavers , known as bishopbirds or widowbirds . is this coincidence , or a deceptive strategy shaped by natural selection ?
on the evolution of aggressive mimicry by adult cuckoo finches : feeney , w . e . , troscianko , j . , langmore , n . e . & spottiswoode , c . n . 2015 evidence for aggressive mimicry in an adult brood parasitic bird , and generalised defences in its host . proceedings of the royal society of london b 282 : 2015079 .
we found that african cuckoo finches – brood parasites that rely on a different kind of bird to raise their young – have evolved to look like harmless weaver birds in an attempt to deceive their hosts . but we also discovered that their tawny - flanked prinia hosts have caught onto this and responded by being aggressive to anyone resembling their enemy – a form of collective punishment .
in some cases , a brood parasite ' s eggs will look nothing like the host ' s eggs , and this is ok because the host cannot tell the difference . but in other cases , especially those involving cuckoo birds , the parasite ' s eggs and the host ' s eggs have similar patterns or colorations , and this results in some very cool evolutionary arms races .
indigobirds and whydahs , along with other finch - type species , are widely trapped for the cagebird trade . in senegal , hundreds of thousands of birds are captured each year , under permit , for this purpose , yet this activity appears , perhaps somewhat surprisingly , to have no noticeable effect on population numbers . viduids are trapped for the trade also in guinea , mali , tanzania and mozambique , and almost certainly elsewhere , too .
a few indigobirds ringed as adults have been recovered more than 20 km from their breeding site , but nothing is known about the juvenile dispersal of these birds . at the end of the breeding season , some whydahs form large flocks and move many kilometres , and a marked shaft - tailed whydah was recovered 150 km from its earlier site . in the dry non - breeding season , cuckoo finches appear in flocks far from their known breeding areas , and they may , in fact , be seasonal migrants .
paradise - whydahs in zambia , where males in breeding plumage appeared at the same site and chased each other . their plumage and their display behaviour were intermediate between those of indigobirds and those of the long - tailed paradise - whydah , and their song mimicked the songs and calls of the melba finch , the normal host species of the whydah . mitochondrial dna of the hybrid male was like that of the indigobirds , which parasitize and mimic the songs of firefinches . the individual life history of one of these hybrid viduids was recovered from its song mimicry and its mitochondria , as
host species of brood - parasitic birds can evolve features such as spots , squiggles and colours on their eggs that act like ‘signatures ' that are difficult for parasites to forge , helping hosts to detect and reject imposter eggs . in this paper , we show that hosts of cuckoo finches ( as well as hosts of diederik cuckoos ) in zambia have optimised this defence by arranging signature traits in unpredictable combinations . thus , egg signatures are individually distinctive and hard for parasites to mimic , helping hosts distinguish parasitic eggs from their own . the paper arose from mphil research by eleanor caves ( co - authored by martin stevens , edwin iversen and claire spottiswoode ) and the data were all obtained from major john colebrook - robjent ' s wonderful egg collection .
viduids occur in flocks at any time of the year , gathering together in the evening , and they often roost in flocks both in the breeding and in non - breeding seasons . sometimes several species will flock and roost together at night in leafy trees . when gathered together , birds will occasionally produce a harsh
chut
or short chatter ; they do not give song mimicry at their roosting assemblages . it is uncertain whether the actively breeding males join in these roosting flocks or roost alone , but at the end of the breeding season , and still in breeding plumage , they certainly feed together and flock for the evening roost along with the moulting males , as well as the females and juveniles . cuckoo finches have not been observed closely through the day , but the breeding females at all stages of their laying cycle spend much of their time in flocks ; males tend to occur alone on song territories , where they are well - spaced from other males , but they also occur in flocks throughout much of the day .


udea uliginosalis is a species of moth in the crambidae family .

it is found in great britain , spain , france , germany , switzerland , austria , slovenia , slovakia , poland , romania , bulgaria , serbia and montenegro , albania and the republic of macedonia .

the wingspan is 25 – 30 mm .

the forewings are dull ash-coloured with a pale spot behind the middle .

the hindwings are paler or whitish with an ashy border on the hindmargin .

adults are on wing in july .

the larvae are probably polyphagous on low plants and/or grasses .

udea uliginosalis

udea uliginosalis §2 , male ; glen strathfarrer , inverness - shire ; 19 / 07 / 2012 ; fw 14 . 3mm © chris lewis
this rather local species is restricted in distribution to the uplands or mountains of scotland , and in some scottish islands such as orkney and rhum .
it frequents grassy habitats where the relatively nondescript adult moths can be found in july .
studies by r . j . heckford in 2009 , where moths were reared in captivity from ova , suggested that the larvae are polyphagous on low plants and / or grasses . typically , in scotland , the species occurs in regions and habitats where no ragwort is present .
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museum für naturkunde leibniz - institut für evolutions - und biodiversitätsforschung invalidenstr . 43 10115 berlin germany e - mail : fauna - eu ( at ) mfn - berlin . de website : urltoken
§4 dalmunzie ( glenshee ) , perthshire ; 26 / 08 / 2016 ; male ; fw 11 . 6mm ; to light all images © chris lewis
we have no records for this species in sussex in the sxbrc database as yet . . .
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taxa with small populations that are not at present endangered or vulnerable , but are at risk . ( in gb , this was interpreted as species which exist in fifteen or fewer 10km squares ) . superseded by new iucn categories in 1994 , but still applicable to lists that have not been reviewed since 1994 .
taxa with small populations that are not at present endangered or vulnerable , but are at risk . ( in gb , this was interpreted as species which exist in fifteen or fewer 10km squares ) . superseded by new iucn categories in 1994 , so no longer in use .
taxa which do not fall within rdb categories but which are none - the - less uncommon in great britain and thought to occur in between 31 and 100 10km squares of the national grid or , for less - well recorded groups between eight and twenty vice - counties . superseded by nationally scarce , and therefore no longer in use .
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flushed from vegetation by day at 1997m altitude - dolomites , italy ( 2 . vii . 2013 ) © neil sherman
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there are 0 county records of individuals from 0 different sites . first recorded in .
2011 - 01 - 26 by & van nieukerken , dr erik j . karsholt , dr ole & by speidel , w . & segerer , a . nuss , m .
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anticrates phaedima is a moth of the lacturidae family .

it is known from australia , including queensland .

the wingspan is about 18 mm .

adults have whitish-yellow forewings with dark fuscous markings .

the hindwings are red , but become paler towards the base .

anticrates phaedima

choose one > anticrates metreta > anticrates paraxantha > anticrates phaedima > anticrates sp . a > anticrates sp . anic1 > anticrates sp . anic2 > anticrates sp . bold : aak2739 > anticrates sp . mm - 2015 > anticrates sp . nw - 2010 > anticrates zapyra all lower taxonomy nodes ( 10 )
e - books online for all anticrates phaedima pdf | electronic library . download books free . finding boooks | bookfi - bookfinder . download books for free . find books .
anticrates phaedima turner , 1913 ( lacturidae ) , male - nsw , 3 miles s of port macquarie , 28 . mar . 1965 , i . f . b . common leg . ( anic ) .
anticrates phaedima turner , 1913 ( lacturidae ) , female - qld , lamington national park , 7 . nov . 1961 , i . f . b . common m . s . upton leg . ( anic ) .
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urn : lsid : biodiversity . org . au : afd . taxon : 1b4f6674 - cbf9 - 41b2 - 82a5 - 34eae1ba1c3a
urn : lsid : biodiversity . org . au : afd . taxon : 533ad1e5 - 6da4 - 46fd - 8557 - 73dd037de465
urn : lsid : biodiversity . org . au : afd . name : 596861
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to cite this page : myers , p . , r . espinosa , c . s . parr , t . jones , g . s . hammond , and t . a . dewey . 2018 . the animal diversity web ( online ) . accessed at https : / / animaldiversity . org .
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