Episode details
Radio 4,3 mins
How does a giant cuckoo chick make its tiny warbler parent feed it enough?
The Life ScientificAvailable for over a year
A baby cuckoo grows to be seven times the size of its duped reed warbler parents. How does a baby cuckoo trick its tiny carers to bring it enough food so that it can grow that huge? Professor Nick Davies and colleagues discovered the answer with crafty experiments in the Cambridgeshire fens. Research involved borrowed baby blackbirds and loudspeakers set up in the reeds.
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