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Wild honeyguide birds prefer to cooperate with people who have learned local cultural traditions to find and access honey-filled bees’ nests, a new study has found.

̽»¨Ö±²¥tale of two charismatic species cooperating for mutual benefit has captivated naturalists for centuries – but evidence has been patchy. Researchers have now carried out the first large-scale search for evidence.

A genetic study of Zambian cuckoo finches has solved one of nature’s biggest criminal cases, an egg forgery scandal two million years in the making. Its findings suggest that the victims of this fraud may now be gaining the upper hand.

̽»¨Ö±²¥common cuckoo is known for its deceitful nesting behaviour – by laying eggs in the nests of other bird species, it fools host parents into rearing cuckoo chicks alongside their own. While cuckoos mimic their host’s eggs, new research has revealed that a group of parasitic finch species in Africa have evolved to mimic their host’s chicks - and with astonishing accuracy.

By following honeyguides, a species of bird, people in Africa are able to locate bees’ nests to harvest honey.  Research now reveals that humans use special calls to solicit the help of honeyguides and that honeyguides actively recruit appropriate human partners. This relationship is a rare example of cooperation between humans and free-living animals.

Claire Spottiswoode (Department of Zoology) and Marjorie Sorensen (Goethe ̽»¨Ö±²¥ Frankfurt am Main) discuss why several species of migratory songbirds sing a great deal in Africa when their breeding grounds are thousands of kilometres away.

Newly hatched chicks of African honeyguide birds bite to death their foster siblings to eliminate competition.

New research reveals how biological arms races between cuckoos and host birds can escalate into a competition between the host evolving new, unique egg patterns (or ‘signatures’) and the parasite new forgeries.

Using field experiments in Africa and a new computer model that gives them a bird's eye view of the world, Cambridge scientists have discovered how a bird decides whether or not a cuckoo has laid an egg in its nest.