Cuckoo Species Research Articles

The common cuckoo is an effective indicator of high bird species richness in Asia and Europe

Common cuckoo Cuculus canorus is a charismatic bird species with a dominant presence in human culture: from folklore legends to nowadays there is evidence of cuckoos being a prime candidate as a surrogate of bird diversity. Recent studies demonstrated that the cuckoo can predict hotspots of taxonomic diversity and functional diversity of bird communities in European countries. In this study, we demonstrated that the cuckoo is an excellent bioindicator at multi-spatial scale, extending cuckoo surrogacy from Europe to Asia. Even using three different survey methods (transect, square, point counts), comparing the new findings with results of our research in Europe, sites where the cuckoo is present were characterized by greater species richness, while the cuckoo was absent from sites with low species richness. The goodness of fit of models based on point counts ranged between 71 and 92%. Furthermore, the cuckoo population trend mirrors the average population trend and climate suitability of overall bird communities in Europe. The common cuckoo is therefore a suitable intercontinental bioindicator of hotspots of bird richness, even under climate change scenarios or in areas where the species co-occurs with other cuckoo species, opening a new avenue for standardized citizen science on bird biodiversity surveys worldwide.

Novel Selection Schemes for Cuckoo Search

The selection process is an important part of any optimization algorithm. Usually, an efficient selection process should balance between exploration of the search space and exploitation of the current knowledge about the best solutions. Cuckoo search (CS) is a simple yet powerful optimization algorithm inspired by the parasitic reproduction behavior of some cuckoo species. At each iteration of the original CS algorithm, the selection process is triggered in three places: (i) cuckoo selection where a cuckoo is selected from the population of n nests (stored solutions) based on a uniformly random function, (ii) host selection where a nest is chosen randomly from the n nests and (iii) greedy selection of a portion of the n nests for replacements with new randomly generated solutions. This paper proposes several variations of the CS algorithm by replacing the uniformly random-based selection method (used in step i) with existing randomized selection schemes, namely greedy, proportional, exponential, \(\varepsilon \)-greedy, softmax and reinforcement learning selection schemes. The proposed variations were evaluated and compared using twenty well-known benchmark functions (12 test functions from CEC 2005). The experimental results show that the proposed variations outperform the original CS algorithm.

An Exploration for the Analysis of Ground Water Possibility in Case Based Recommendation System using Hybrid Cuckoo Search and Artificial Honey Bee Algorithm

Groundwater Possibility Exploration is one of the prime problems in human life. Human and other social species are directly or indirectly dependent on water resources. But with increasing population and instant changing environmental conditions, groundwater resources are also becoming less day by day. One approach of manual exploration can be used but that is most laborious and time consuming task. So, there is need of some autonomous approach with which we can find the more groundwater resources without digging the bore well. This paper presents an autonomous approach in case based recommendation system using hybrid cuckoo search and artificial honey bee algorithm for groundwater possibility detection. The proposed concept is structured in the manner to have the input in the form six attributes of slope, geology, landuse, lineament, soil & landform and give output in the form of low, intermediate and high possibility. In this method, case based reasoning used in the manner to retrieve the previous knowledge of use cases. The cases are actually the host bird’s nest and input is cuckoo’s egg. CS originates from the behaviour of certain species of cuckoo which lay eggs in other birds nest in parasitic manner. If cuckoo’s egg adapts the behaviour of host nests it will exist otherwise the host bird will discard cuckoo’s egg. The minimum similarity value is calculated using ABC algorithm. CBR life cycle further uses the information from this metaphor. The overall method is evaluated using the parameters of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy.

Modified cuckoo search algorithm for multiobjective short-term hydrothermal scheduling

Abstract This paper proposes a modified cuckoo search algorithm (MCSA) for solving multi-objective short-term fixed head hydrothermal scheduling (HTS) problem. The main objective of the multiobjective HTS problem is to minimize both total power generation cost and emission of thermal generators over a scheduling period while satisfying power balance, hydraulic, and generator operating limit constraints. The proposed MCSA method is developed for the problem based on improvements from the conventional CSA method which is a new metaheuristic algorithm inspired from the behavior of some cuckoo species laying their egg into the nest of other species to improve the optimal solution and speed up the computational process. In the MCSA method, the nests are evaluated and classified into two groups including the top group with better quality eggs and the abandoned group with worse quality eggs. Two effective strategies via Levy flights for producing new solutions are applied to the abandoned and top groups. To validate the efficiency of the MCSA method, several test systems have been tested and the result comparisons from the test systems have indicated that the proposed method can obtain higher quality solution and shorter computational time than many other methods. Therefore, the proposed MCSA method can be new efficient method for solving multiobjective short-term fixed-head HTS problems.

Grey Gerygone hosts are not egg rejecters, but Shining Bronze-Cuckoos lay cryptic eggs

ABSTRACT Many brood parasites rely on mimicry to prevent the detection of their eggs by hosts, yet most Australasian cuckoo species lay darkly colored eggs while the eggs of their hosts are pale and speckled. In the dimly lit nests of their hosts, these cuckoo eggs may appear cryptic; however, it is unclear if this disguise has evolved to fool hosts or other cuckoos. Recent work suggests that in at least one species of bronze-cuckoo, cuckoos are more likely to reject conspicuous eggs than are hosts, but it remains unclear whether this is common across the species group. Here, we present field experiments on the sole host of the Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus lucidus) in New Zealand, the Grey Gerygone (Gerygone igata; known locally as the Grey Warbler), that explored whether this host ignores cuckoo eggs because they are cryptic. Using an avian vision model, we showed that Shining Bronze-Cuckoo eggs were variable in their conspicuousness, but were more cryptic in host nests than the host's eggs. ...

The effect of social group size on feather corticosterone in the co-operatively breeding Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani): An assay validation and analysis of extreme social living.

Living closely with others can provide a myriad of fitness benefits, from shared territory defense to co-operative resource acquisition. Costs of social aggregation are not absent, however, and likely influence optimal and observed groups’ sizes in a social species. Here, we explored optimal group size in a joint-nesting cuckoo species (the Smooth-billed Ani, Crotophaga ani) using endocrine markers of stress physiology (corticosterone, or CORT). Smooth-billed Anis exhibit intense reproductive competition that is exacerbated in atypically large groups. We therefore hypothesized that intra-group competition (measured by social group size) mediates the desirability and physiological cost of social group membership in this species. To test this hypothesis, we captured 47 adult Smooth-billed Anis (31 males, 16 females) during the breeding seasons of 2012-2014 in south-western Puerto Rico, and documented social group sizes. Tail feathers were sampled and used to quantify CORT (pg/mg) in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) (n = 50). Our analyses show significant differences in feather-CORT of adults between categorical group sizes, with individuals from atypically large social groups (≥ x + 1SD) having highest mean concentrations (33.319 pg/mg), and individuals from atypically small social groups (≤ x − 1SD) having lowest mean concentrations (8.969 pg/mg). Whether reproductive competition or effort is responsible for elevated CORT in atypically large social groups, however, remains unclear. Our results suggest that living in atypically large groups is physiologically expensive and may represent an evolutionarily unstable strategy. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore a correlation between stress physiology and group size in a joint-nesting species.

Declining ranges of southern African breeding cuckoos do not reflect host species’ range changes

ABSTRACTGlobal declines in cuckoo numbers have been variously attributed to reduced prey availability; changes in their hosts’ ranges; or climate-induced changes. We used data from two Southern African Bird Atlas Projects to determine whether migrant cuckoo species breeding in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland have experienced range shifts during the past 25 years; and whether such changes corresponded to shifts in host species distribution. Changes in presence/absence data indicated that of the nine cuckoo species found breeding in this region, six showed reductions in range (African Cuckoo, African Emerald Cuckoo, Diederik Cuckoo, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Jacobin Cuckoo and Red-chested Cuckoo); two are expanding (Black Cuckoo and Levaillant’s Cuckoo) and one remains stable (Klaas’s Cuckoo). Occupancy modelling of these data indicated that the host ranges of only four of the nine species (Great Spotted Cuckoo, Klaas’s Cuckoo, Levaillant’s Cuckoo and Red-chested Cuckoo) predicted cuckoo distribution in the first instance. Of these, only in Levaillant’s Cuckoo is range expansion related to changes in the range of its sole known host species in the region, the Arrow-marked Babbler. These results imply that factors other than changes in the ranges of their hosts appear to be driving the range reductions observed in six southern African cuckoo species.

Master-Leader-Slave Cuckoo Search with Parameter Control for ANN Optimization and Its Real-World Application to Water Quality Prediction.

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been employed to solve a broad variety of tasks. The selection of an ANN model with appropriate weights is important in achieving accurate results. This paper presents an optimization strategy for ANN model selection based on the cuckoo search (CS) algorithm, which is rooted in the obligate brood parasitic actions of some cuckoo species. In order to enhance the convergence ability of basic CS, some modifications are proposed. The fraction Pa of the n nests replaced by new nests is a fixed parameter in basic CS. As the selection of Pa is a challenging issue and has a direct effect on exploration and therefore on convergence ability, in this work the Pa is set to a maximum value at initialization to achieve more exploration in early iterations and it is decreased during the search to achieve more exploitation in later iterations until it reaches the minimum value in the final iteration. In addition, a novel master-leader-slave multi-population strategy is used where the slaves employ the best fitness function among all slaves, which is selected by the leader under a certain condition. This fitness function is used for subsequent Lévy flights. In each iteration a copy of the best solution of each slave is migrated to the master and then the best solution is found by the master. The method is tested on benchmark classification and time series prediction problems and the statistical analysis proves the ability of the method. This method is also applied to a real-world water quality prediction problem with promising results.

Large Hawk-Cuckoo and Asian Koel, two species of tropical cuckoo, may be increasing in the Miyako Islands of Southern Japan

Large Hawk-Cuckoo and Asian Koel, two species of tropical cuckoo, may be increasing in the Miyako Islands of Southern Japan

Non-convex Economic Load Dispatch using Cuckoo Search Algorithm

<p>This paper presents cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) for solving non-convex economic load dispatch (ELD) problems of fossil fuel fired generators considering transmission losses and valve point loading effect. CSA is a new meta-heuristic optimisation technique inspired from the obligate brood parasitism of some cuckoo species by laying their eggs in the nests of other host birds of other species. The strength of the proposed meta-heuristic optimization technique CSA has been tested and validated on the standard IEEE 14-bus, 26-bus and 30-bus system with several heuristic load patterns. The results have indicated that the proposed approach is able to obtain significant economic load dispatch solutions than those of Firefly Algorithm (FFA) and other soft computing techniques reported in the literature.</p>

Song Characteristics of Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus optatus and Himalayan Cuckoo Cuculus saturatus and Implications for Distribution and Taxonomy.

Canwei Xia, Wei Liang, Geoff J. Carey, and Yanyun Zhang (2016) Song features during the breeding season are important in identifying species of cuckoos. Whether Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus optatus and Himalayan Cuckoo C. saturatus inhabiting the Palearctic and Oriental realms respectively can be distinguished according to song characteristics is uncertain. In this study, we performed a thorough investigation of the song characteristics of these taxa by collecting and analyzing recordings of song in their distribution areas. We found that songs could be divided into two groups based on the number of notes per syllable, and significant differences in other frequency and temporal features were also found between these two groups. The group with a song comprising two notes per syllable was shown to breed in Russia, Japan and China including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Taiwan, while the group with a song containing more than two notes per syllable was found to breed in the Himalayas and central China, extending northeast through north China as far as northeast Hebei, and south to southwest China. The distribution of these two groups was broadly related to the published distribution of populations of optatus and saturatus, respectively. Our data supported the separation of optatus and saturatus based on their song features, and also suggested refinements to the distribution of these two taxa, as follows: birds in north mainland China are saturatus, and those in Taiwan Island are optatus.

The converse to Bergmann's rule in bumblebees, a phylogenetic approach.

Two patterns commonly emerge when animal body size is analyzed as a function of latitudinal distribution. First, body size increases with latitude, a temperature effect known as Bergmann's rule, and second, the converse to Bergmann's rule, a pattern in which body size decreases with latitude. However, other geographic patterns can emerge when the mechanisms that generate Bergmann's and the converse to Bergmann's clines operate together. Here, we use phylogenetic comparative analysis in order to control for phylogenetic inertia, and we show that bumblebees exhibit the converse to Bergmann's rule. Bumblebee taxa are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical regions. The largest species are found in places with high water availability during the driest time of the year. Nonetheless, large body size is constrained by extreme temperatures. Bumblebees’ body size could be related to a higher extent to the size of food rewards to be harvested than to the energetic advantages of thermoregulation. Moreover, we found that the body size of eusocial and cuckoo species responded in the same way to environmental variables, suggesting that they have not diverged due to different selective pressures.

Modified cuckoo search algorithm with rough sets for feature selection

In this paper, a modified cuckoo search algorithm with rough sets is presented to deal with high dimensionality data through feature selection. The modified cuckoo search algorithm imitates the obligate brood parasitic behavior of some cuckoo species in combination with the Levy flight behavior of some birds. The modified cuckoo search uses the rough sets theory to build the fitness function that takes the number of features in reduct set and the classification quality into account. The proposed algorithm is tested and validated benchmark on several benchmark datasets drawn from the UCI repository and using different evaluation criteria as well as a further analysis is carried out by means of the Analysis of Variance test. In addition, the proposed algorithm is experimentally compared with the existing algorithms on discrete datasets. Finally, two learning algorithms, namely K-nearest neighbors and support vector machines are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the classification performance.

Chaotic Time Series Forecasting Based on Wave Echo State Network

The chaotic time series forecasting oriented to the network traffic forecasting is put forward in order to analyze the behavioral traits of the network traffic and make forecasting through modeling. Firstly the time series of one-dimensional network traffic is reconstructed into a multi-dimensional time series and then the support vector machine is taken as a position of bird’s nest to find the optimal parameters through the simulation of parasitism and reproduction mechanism of cuckoo species and finally the network traffic forecasting model is to be established based on the optimal parameters and the performance of chaotic time series forecasting will be tested through the simulation experiment. The simulation result shows that, compared with the reference model, the chaotic time series forecasting improves the forecasting accuracy of the network traffic and more accurately demonstrates the complex change trend of the network traffic and provides the chaotic network traffic with a new research tool.

Brood Parasite-Host Coevolution in America Versus Europe: Egg Rejection in Large-Sized Host Species

The hosts of brood parasites have evolved egg-discrimination ability as a defence that allows them to reject parasitic eggs laid in their nests. Twenty-five years ago, Stephen Rothstein emphasised that rejection rates differed markedly between potential host species in Europe and America. The much more complete information available today supports Rothstein's conclusions, but also allows new ones, especially when considering host size. For instance, successful resistance, one of the three potential long-term outcomes of brood parasite-host coevolution, is considerably more frequent in small-sized European host species and in medium-sized and large-sized Nearctic host species, while this evolutionary outcome is rare among Neotropical hosts regardless of their size. These results have never before been discussed, despite the differences being spectacular: 17 out of 19 small hosts presenting successful resistance are from Europe and 16 out of 17 medium-sized and 11 out of 13 large hosts presenting successful resistance are from North America. Interestingly, many large Nearctic hosts with a rejection rate close to 100% are corvids. The high rejection capacity shown by large Nearctic potential hosts probably evolved as a response to a highly virulent extinct brood parasite, either a large extinct cowbird or an extinct cuckoo species, which went extinct after losing the arms race against its large hosts.

Egg rejection and clutch phenotype variation in the plain prinia Prinia inornata

Avian hosts of brood parasites can evolve anti‐parasitic defenses to recognize and reject foreign eggs from their nests. Theory predicts that higher inter‐clutch and lower intra‐clutch variation in egg appearance facilitates hosts to detect parasitic eggs as egg‐rejection mainly depends on the appearance of the egg. Therefore, we predict that egg patterns and rejection rates will differ when hosts face different intensity of cuckoo parasitism. We tested this prediction in two populations of the plain prinia Prinia inornata: Guangxi in mainland China with high diversity and density of cuckoo species, and Taiwan where there is only one breeding cuckoo species, the oriental cuckoo Cuculus optatus. As expected, egg patterns were similar within clutches but different among clutches (polymorphic eggs) in the mainland population, while the island population produced more uniform egg morphs. Furthermore, the mainland population showed a high rate of egg rejection, while the island population exhibited dramatically reduced egg grasp‐rejection ability in the absence of parasitism by the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus. Our study suggests that prinias show lower intra‐clutch consistency in egg colour and lose egg‐rejecting ability under relaxed selection pressure from brood parasitism.

<strong>Host-parasite relationships in the system composed by cuckoos and quill mites</strong>

Abstract Cuckoos are known for being brood parasites, however, the majority of the family Cuculidae (Aves: Cuculiformes) raise their own young. In those brood parasitic cuckoo species, raised by their fosterers, direct contact between a parent and its offspring is unknown. Life cycle and ecology of their ectoparasites therefore remain enigmatic. Until now, only one quill mite species (Acari: Prostigmata: Syringophilidae) parasitising brood parasitic cuckoo, Cuculus canorus L., was known. Therefore, we investigated syringophilid fauna of four other parasitic species of the family Cuculidae: Cuculus solitarius Steph., Cercococcyx montanus Chap., Pachycoccyx audeberti (Schl.), and Scythrops novaehollandiae (Lath.), as well as four non-parasitic species: Crotophaga ani L., C. sulcirostris Swain., Guira guira (Gmel.) and Centropus goliath (Bonap.). We have found out that all studied parasitic species as well as one non-parasitic cuckoo, Centropus goliath, forming one phylogenetic lineage, harbour the same quil...

Parameter estimation of shallow wave equation via cuckoo search

In this study, cuckoo search is introduced for performing the parameter estimation of shallow wave equation for the first time. Cuckoo search (CS) is invented based on the inspiration of brood parasitic behavior of some cuckoo species in combination with the Levy flight behavior. These meta-heuristics have been successfully used for solving some optimization problems with promising results. However, this emerging optimization method has not been applied in parameter inversion problem. This study reports a CS-based parameter estimation method to inverse the roughness coefficient and the coefficient of eddy viscosity under some specific conditions. Simulation results and experimental data show that cuckoo search offers a reliable performance for these parameter estimation problems.

Optimal design of a solar-hybrid cogeneration cycle using Cuckoo Search algorithm

In this paper optimum design of solar-hybrid cogeneration cycle based on the Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm is presented. The CS is one of the recently developed population based algorithms inspired by the behavior of some cuckoo species together via the Levy flight behavior of some birds and fruit flies.Moreover, solar power tower technology is practical for utilization in conventional fossil fired power cycles, in part because it can achieve temperatures as high as 1000°C. An exergoeconomic optimization is reported here of a solar-hybrid cogeneration cycle. Modifications are applied to the well-known the prescribed simple cogeneration (CGAM) problem through hybridization by appropriate heliostat field design around the power tower to meet the plant’s annual demand. The hybrid cycle is optimized utilizing a CS and compared with the results of the Genetic Algorithm (GA) in Matlab toolbox. Considering exergy efficiency and product cost as objective functions, and principal variables as decision variables, the optimum point is determined. The corresponding optimum decision variables are set as inputs of the system and the technical results are a 48% reduction in fuel consumption which leads to a corresponding decrease in CO2 emissions and a considerable decrease in chemical exergy destruction as the main source of irreversibility. In the analyses, the net power generated is fixed at 30MW with a marginal deviation in order to compare the results with the conventional cycle. Despite the technical advantages of this scheme, the total product cost rises significantly (by about 87%), which is an expected economic outcome.Effective time-saving procedure using simple parallel computing, as well as utilizing reliable analysis and design tool are also some main features of the present study. The results show that the proposed method appears effective in optimizing thermodynamic cycles.

Cuckoo Search Algorithm Using Different Distributions for Short - Term Hydrotherm al Scheduling with Reservoir Vo lume Constraint

This paper proposes a cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) using different distributions for solving the short-term hydrothermal scheduling (ST-HTS) problem with reservoir storage constraint on hydropower plants. The CSA method is a new meta-heuristic algorithm inspired from the obligate brood parasitism of some cuckoo species by laying their eggs in the nests of other host birds of other species for solving optimization problems. The advantages of the CSA method are few control parameters and effective for optimization problems with complicated constraints. In the proposed CSA, three distributions have been used including Levy distribution, Gaussian distribution and Cauchy distribution. The proposed method has been tested on two test systems and the obtained results have been compared to that from other methods available in the literature. The result comparisons have indicated that the proposed method is a very favorable method for solving the short term hydrothermal scheduling problems with reservoir constraint.