Cuckoos are birds that practice brood parasitism. Instead of raising her own young, a mother cuckoo finds another bird’s nest and lays her egg when the other is away. The other bird dutifully cares for the cuckoo egg until it hatches. The cuckoo hatchling, before it can even see, senses the touch of other eggs in the nest and ejects them by pushing against them with its body. Characterize the hatchling’s behavior, using Tinbergen’s first two questions for understanding a behavior. What is the stimulus for the behavior? What is the response? How does prior experience influence the behavior? Solution The cuckoo is the best known brood parasite an expert in the art of cruel deception. Its strategy involves stealth, surprise and speed. Cuckoos will not build their own nest. Female cuckoos will find another bird’s nest and in the absence of the parent she removes one of the original egg and removing it from nest laying her own egg. Cuckoos parasitize the nests of a large variety of bird species and carefully mimic the colour and pattern of their own eggs to match that of their hosts. To give proper parental care to their egg. The bright red mouth act as stimulus to the foster parent to feed it regularly. It carefully mimic the colour and pattern of their own egg to match with the hosts..