June 5, 2017

Word premiere: cuckoos on live stream

Filed under: Animals,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 8:19 pm

Cuckoo-1

A world first from the ornithologists, the Dutch Bird Protection Society (Vogelbescherming) has set up a live stream on a cuckoo’s nest. And that’s always amusing to say, considering the cuckoo can’t be arsed to build its own nest, but uses other birds’ nest to lay its eggs in. According to Wikipedia, although its eggs are larger than those of its hosts, the eggs in each type of host nest resemble the host’s eggs, a form of mimicry.

In the case of this live stream, this Dutch cuckoo is a bit too big for the nest it is occupying and reminds me of YouTube cat sensation Maru trying to get into a box.

There’s a steady decline of cuckoos in all of Western Europe and the cause is unclear, which is why the Dutch Bird Protection Society has named 2017 the Year of the Cuckoo and is live streaming the nest. Hundreds of thousands of people have tuned in, including us, so give it a whirl.

(Link: naturetoday.com, Screenshot of live stream)

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