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On Tuesday 7, Peter wrote:
"On an early morning
walk today, I witnessed a female Koel being chased from a Magpie-Larks nest
built over water. In the flurry of activity the Koel dropped something into the
water below and I assumed it to be a Magpie-Larks egg. Is this normal behaviour?
- I had believed it was the fledgling Koel that cleared the host nest of
competition? Can anyone shed some light.?"
My understanding is that most cuckoos will remove
one egg for the one they lay (eg refer page 533 of Pizzey & Knight) and
then junior deals with the rest on hatching. I presume this is because the
hosts can recognise (if not count per se) the number of eggs in the nest and
would abandon if an extra one appeared.
Any more scientific thoughts on this?
Cheers
Tom Wilson
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