A report on Common cuckoo and Mistle thrush

Common cuckoo in flight
In Kazakhstan
A Eurasian cuckoo (C. c. bakeri) from Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary in East Sikkim, India.
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Cuckoo adult (top) mimics sparrowhawk, giving female time to lay eggs parasitically
Male (left) passing earthworms to female on nest
This Eurasian reed warbler is raising a common cuckoo.
The mistle thrush derives its English and scientific names from mistletoe, a favourite food.
Cuckoo eggs mimicking smaller eggs, in this case of reed warbler
A castor bean tick swollen with the blood of its host
Cuculus canorus canorus in a nest Acrocephalus arundinaceus - MHNT
Mistle Thrush and Alpine Chough by Giovanni da Udine
Cuculus canorus bangsi in a nest Phoenicurus moussieri - MHNT
A chick of the common cuckoo in the nest of a tree pipit
Golden cuckoo in the coat of arms of Suomenniemi

The mistle thrush is not normally a host of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite.

- Mistle thrush

283) Mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus)

- Common cuckoo

2 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Common blackbird

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Species of true thrush.

Species of true thrush.

Female of subspecies merula
Historic image of blackbird in Nederlandsche Vogelen (1770)
Male blackbird with earthworm
Adult male feeding on cherries in Lausanne, Switzerland
A male attempting to distract a kestrel close to its nest
"Sing a Song for Sixpence" cover illustration
T. m. cabrerae on Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
Juvenile T. m. merula in England
Young adult T. m. merula in Oxfordshire
A leucistic adult male in England with much white in the plumage
Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden
Eggs in a nest
Two chicks in a nest

Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.

This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs.

Song thrush

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Thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic.

Thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic.

A parent feeding chicks in their nest in a New Zealand garden
A Song Thrush in Germany
In flight
Juvenile in New Zealand
Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia (Caucasus Mountains)
Three eggs in a nest
Broken shells of grove snails on an 'anvil'
In New Zealand
Song thrush in Slovenia

A molecular study indicated that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush (T. viscivorus) and Chinese thrush (T. mupinensis); these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa.

The song thrush is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo, but this is very rare because the thrush recognizes the cuckoo's non-mimetic eggs.