Most birds spend hours, days, or even weeks painstakingly building their nests. Some birds make nests out of mud, some build nests in trees, and some birds nest on the ground and simply scrape out a ...

This story appears in the January 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine. For the care and feeding of its offspring, the common cuckoo outsources. When she’s ready to lay an egg, a female Cuculus ...

A bird sighting on New York's Long Island has avian enthusiasts flocking to the region in hopes of spotting a feathered friend that has never been seen before in the state. The common cuckoo is ...

There are plenty of birds that are widely referenced in popular culture today, whether as a sports team name or as the origin for an ubiquitous turn of phrase—looking at you, ugly duckling. But few ...

Nest building is costly. It requires time, energy, and constant defence from predators. For birds that raise their own young, this investment makes sense because it ensures survival of their chicks.

Common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) in flight. This is an adult male: Grey morph adult females have a pinkish-buff or buff background to the barring and the sides of the neck, and sometimes small rufous ...