Although cuckoo spends almost nine months in Africa, it never sings while there. Cuckoos do not build their own nests, because the female cuckoo uses nests of other birds to lay her own eggs. More than 120 species of birds can be tricked to raise young cuckoos as their own chicks, but 90% of cuckoo's eggs are laid in the nests of reed warbler, meadow pipit and dunnock birds.
Female cuckoo lays one egg in each nest. She usually lays between 12 and 22 eggs per season (in 12 to 22 different nests).Timing of the hatching is very important and female cuckoo closely observes routine and behavior of other birds.
Cuckoo's eggs need to hatch before other eggs so that the young cuckoos gain advantage over other chicks and ensure enough food for development.Young cuckoos are very aggressive toward other chicks in the nest and they will often remove them from the nest as soon as they hatch. When they are several weeks old, young cuckoos are ready to fly to Africa along with their parents.
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