Stranger At The Table

[maggiebee]

Just had my daughter on the phone. Apparently two blackbirds in her garden frantically feeding a rather large bird. Got the feeling they are raising a cuckoo??

[gness]

Could well be, Maggie...any report on colour? I watched a tiny finch feed a cuckoo....sad in a way but what a clever bird is the cuckoo...x

[maggiebee]

She said it was quite large, more grey than brown with a spotted underside. Tail feathers were grey.

[gness]

Sounds like what the well dressed cuckoo is wearing this year Maggie. At this time of year it's feathers will look fairly stripey.....or barred before I'm corrected.....nice sight especially if she can spot its huge orange mouth! x

[FredPuli43]

It is very rare for blackbirds to be parasitised by cuckoos. Of 59,770 nests examined only 3 had cuckoo eggs in [wikipedia; blackbird, with reference]

The juvenile blackbird has a spotted breast.The cuckoo has a barred breast. Chances are that this was a greedy, demanding, blackbird youngster rather than a cuckoo youngster.

[Frank97]

A Blackbird feeding a chick
http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy197/D97x7/0182012_12_1517_01_28UTC.jpg
I thought it was feeding a Thrush at first.

[maggiebee]

Not at all sure as I haven't seen it. Daughter trying to get a picture.

[Brinjal]

Poor birdies. I have a family of babblers that seem to get to raise a cuckoo every year. It is quite funny when you see these much smaller birds feeding their giant size baby but I do feel sorry for them.

[FredPuli43]

Brinjal, are you in India or some country near? We like to think of cuckoos as part of the British summer and forget that there are other cuckoos whose habits are the same.

[Brinjal]

I'm in Zimbabwe we have local cuckoos and migratory ones.