Birds evolved distinctive patterns on eggs to spot cuckoo imposters

For some birds, recognising their own eggs can be a matter of life or death. Scientists have used imafe recognition technology to show that birds defending their nests against the Common Cuckoo - which lays its lethal offspring in other birds' nests - have evolved distinctive patterns on their eggs in order to distinguish them from those laid by a cuckoo cheat. These patterns provide a defence against the cuckoo's trickery by helping birds reject the cuckoo eggs before they hatch and destroy the host's own brood. Scientists have shown that birds defending their nests against the Common Cuckoo - which lays its lethal offspring in other birds' nests - have evolved distinctive patterns on their eggs in order to distinguish them from those laid by a cuckoo cheat. Scientists from the University of Cambridge and Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have developed a new computer vision tool to unravel how a host bird may perceive and recognise such complex pattern information.