Study
Signals of need in parent–offspring communication and their exploitation by the common cuckoo
Kilner, R. M.; Noble, D. G.; Davies, N. B.
Nature, 1999
Provisioning rates were measured at nests containing a cuckoo chick and at nests containing host broods of varying size. Begging calls were recorded and played back, and visual and acoustic cues were manipulated separately to establish which the parents respond to.
- Studied in
- Cuculus canorus, Acrocephalus scirpaceus
- Sample size
- begging-call playback and provisioning trials at wild nests
A single cuckoo chick received provisioning comparable to a whole host brood. Its rapid begging call, delivered at a rate resembling several chicks, was necessary for this: playback of the call raised provisioning, and suppressing it reduced provisioning below what the chick’s size alone would elicit.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The cuckoo chick exploits an acoustic signal of brood need, compensating vocally for presenting only one gape.
How NatureHQ reads it
The result that identifies which channel the exploitation runs through. A parent bird is not counting chicks; it is responding to a rate of begging, and the parasite has to sound like a brood rather than look like one. Isolating the acoustic channel is what makes that a mechanism instead of an impression.
- One host species; hosts differ in how much they weight acoustic against visual cues.
- Playback tests establish what parents respond to, not what a chick is doing in every natural nest.
One chick, the sound of many
A single cuckoo chick is fed about as much as a whole brood of host chicks. Where does the extra provisioning come from, when there is only one gape?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Nature PortfolioPublished in a Nature Portfolio journal.
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-03.