When the Cuckoo is ready to lay she will take an egg out of the chosen nest and lay her own in its place. She will then fly off with the other bird’s egg and eat it. The female Cuckoo can lay up to 25 eggs in a season in various host birds’ nests.
Once the egg is in the nest, it’s over to the host bird to incubate the Cuckoo egg, thinking it is one of their own. Cuckoo chicks hatch from the egg after 12 days, and the young Cuckoo is just as sneaky and violent as its mother as they will instinctively push other eggs or young out of the nest to ensure that they themselves will receive enough food from the host parents. This continues for almost three weeks until the young Cuckoo is ready to leave the nest – at which point the chick will be around three times the size of an adult Reed warbler.
After it leaves the hosts bird nest it goes out in the world and finds a mate only to repeat this over and over again.
Once the egg is in the nest, it’s over to the host bird to incubate the Cuckoo egg, thinking it is one of their own. Cuckoo chicks hatch from the egg after 12 days, and the young Cuckoo is just as sneaky and violent as its mother as they will instinctively push other eggs or young out of the nest to ensure that they themselves will receive enough food from the host parents. This continues for almost three weeks until the young Cuckoo is ready to leave the nest – at which point the chick will be around three times the size of an adult Reed warbler.
After it leaves the hosts bird nest it goes out in the world and finds a mate only to repeat this over and over again.