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"How do young cuckoos get together" raises two
issues. Are you asking about whilst young and still dependent on their foster
parents? My answer to that is - if they do so at all (regularly), I'd
suggest just random by seeing potential suppliers of food passing by and
latching onto them to get an extra feed. Or maybe they recognise the calls of
other baby cuckoos and are attracted to them.
If you are referring to when they are no longer
babies but ready to breed. The answer is obvious: through an instinctive
recognition. The reason is also obvious and that is to breed. To know what
instinct feels like you would need to be the bird. But I reckon I would be
attracted to a suitable female human without (or in this case in spite of) being
raised with a sister.
Lastly and sorry but it has come up again, one
other point and Julian is far from the only one to get this wrong. (Sean Dooley
has admitted to me that to his great embarrassment, he got it wrong in his big
twitch book.) It is Horsfield's, NOT Horsefields. Named in honour of Mr
Horsfield (no e in the middle and being possessive of just one Mr
Horsfield, it needs the apostrophe). Also for what it is worth, a hyphen in
there too, to indicate that "Bronze-Cuckoo" is a group name (otherwise for
example "Little Bronze Cuckoo" could mean it is a cuckoo with a little bit of
bronze on it).
Philip
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