Common Cuckoo – hepatic female, Bangalore

Hepatic-morph cuckoo also refers to the red-brown coloration and this coloration is mostly on the female birds. A passage migrant through Asia, winters in Africa. The cuckoos are brood parasites – which rely on other birds to raise their young. They lay their eggs parasitically along with other birds egg in the nest by pushing out one of the hosts egg from the nest. As the egg hatches it is raised by the other bird as their own. Cuckoo also evolves to lay eggs that imitate the hosts egg. As the cuckoo egg hatches it pushes out the host birds eggs or if the hosts eggs already hatched it pushes out the chick of the host. The bird is generally found in the open land, feeding on insects and caterpillars.