Cuckoo
Book description
Beloved as the herald of spring, cuckoos have held a place in our affections for centuries. The oldest song in English celebrates the cuckoo's arrival, telling us that 'Sumer is icumen in'. But for many other birds the cuckoo is a signal of doom, for it is Nature's most notorious…
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Why read it?
2 authors picked Cuckoo as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
There are few clearer examples of how species have coevolved relentlessly than the interactions between cuckoos and other birds. Cuckoos have evolved an arsenal of ways to deceive other avian species into raising their young, and their avian hosts have evolved a counter-arsenal of defenses to protect themselves from cuckoos. Nick Davies, who is one of the world’s leading ornithologists and evolutionary ecologists, has been studying this evolutionary arms race for decades at Wicken Fen near Cambridge, England. In this engaging book, he takes us on a scientific journey, relating what others had already discovered before he began his work…
From John's list on coevolution and relentless evolution.
Nick Davies and I conducted our PhDs at the same time, his on how birds forage, mine on guillemot (murre) behavior. Nick went on to spend several decades studying cuckoos, stepping in Darwin’s footsteps to unravel the array of wonderful adaptations that allow brood parasites, like cuckoos, to thrive. His Cuckoo is an emotive, engaging, and accessible account of that painstaking and ingenious research and a model of popular science writing.
From Tim's list on birds and ourselves.
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