The cuckoo’s contested history

Abstract

A recent article in TREE on the parasitic behavior of common cuckoo chicks (Cuculus canorus), opens by noting that the deception of the foster parents is a ‘long-standing puzzle’1. The puzzle of cuckoo behavior, however, has been standing since before 1979, the date of the article’s oldest reference. Indeed, the current debates are simply a new chapter in a contested history, the most controversial period of which occurred over a century ago, when the cuckoo attracted the attention of Charles Darwin, John Gould and a Victorian artist named Jemima Blackburn.