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Published online 28 January 1999 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news990128-4
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How do cuckoos find their hosts?
Cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, who are fooled into raising the infant cuckoo as one of their own. But how does a female cuckoo find the nest of a gullible host? It’s all to do with habitat: according to a report in Animal Behaviour, cuckoos return to places that remind them of where they were fledged, and in which they are more likely to encounter suitable host birds to parasitize.
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