The birds of deceit and deception! Some myths, some facts!

I spotted this beautiful bird. I thought it was "Titter" but a friend of mine who has a vast knowledge of birds identified it as a species of Cuckoo. He is absolutely right as I matched the photograph with that available on the net.The shrill cuckoo call in the morning is very enchanting but study of its habit is equally enlightening as many myths get removed.

I always thought cuckoos were just black in colour but now I know that they can be grey or brown with soft feathers . I further thought that they deceive just crows by laying its eggs in their nests. Some research into its habits point out that cuckoo not only lays eggs in crow's nest but also in the nests of many other birds by deceiving them and at times by force. It can lay up to 13 eggs even though there was an earlier belief that it lays only one egg.

Recently the researchers have further pointed out that Cuckoos secrete a stinking smell in the host's nest that keep the predators away. Thus they are not totally parasites but play a mutually useful role or pays the rent of the nest. Another interesting fact is that at times Cuckoo evict the hosts from their nests and throwing out the eggs of its host. It is only cuckoo who can distinguish its eggs from that of its hosts even though its eggs match in colour, shape and size of that of the host.

I read somewhere that there is reference of cuckoo as a symbol of deception in Greek mythology. Zeus , the god of thunder and lightening and also known as the king of gods of the Mount Olympus transformed itself into rain drenched Cuckoo to seduce Hera who considered Cuckoo as a sacred bird and had earlier shunned Zeus because of his numerous love affairs. Zeus marriage with Hera was kept secret from their parents, Myth says they were brother and sister before they got married. Hera was jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus's mistresses and their children by him. Zeus engaged a nymph named Echo to distract Hera from his affairs by talking incessantly, and when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.