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83-553: Vidyapati ( c.  1352 – 1448), also known by the sobriquet Maithil Kavi Kokil (the poet cuckoo of Maithili ), was a Maithili and Sanskrit polymath-poet-saint, playwright , composer , biographer , philosopher , law-theorist , writer, courtier and royal priest. He was a devotee of Shiva , but also wrote love songs and devotional Vaishnava songs. He had knowledge of, and composed works in Sanskrit , Prakrit , Apabhramsha and Maithili . Vidyapati's influence

166-602: A Sati ritual, after the 12 years waiting for the King Sivasimha. Padmavati was the eldest wife of the King Sivasimha. She also ruled Mithila for 3 years. Sivasimha ruled Mithila mainly between 1412 and 1416. He was actively taking part in the kingdom's administration since he was 15, when his father, King Devasimha, was alive. He transferred his capital from Devakuli to Gajarathapur (also known as Shiv Singhpur) near Darbhanga . The people of Mithila remember him for digging several large tanks in several villages of

249-438: A sign stimulus . Since obligate brood parasites need to successfully trick their host for them to reproduce, they have evolved adaptations at several stages of breeding. High costs of parasitism are exerted on the host, leading to strong selections on the host to recognize and reject parasitic eggs. The adaptations and counter-adaptations between hosts and parasites have led to a coevolution "arms race". This means that if one of

332-415: A territory and to attract a mate. Within a species, the calls are remarkably consistent across the range, even in species with very large ranges. This suggests, along with the fact that many species are not raised by their true parents, that the calls of cuckoos are innate and not learnt. Although cuckoos are diurnal, many species call at night. The cuckoo family gets its English and scientific names from

415-671: A different language earned him the title "the new Jayadeva". His work did differ from his predecessor's in two ways. His songs were independent from one another unlike the Gita Govinda, which comprises twelve cantos telling an overarching story of the couple's separation and reunion. While Jayadeva wrote from Krishna's perspective, Vidyapati preferred Radha's; "her career as a young girl, her slowly awakening youth, her physical charm, her shyness, doubts and hesitations, her naive innocence, her need for love, her surrender to rapture, her utter anguish when neglected – all of these are described from

498-418: A host nest. Cuckoo eggshells have two distinct layers. In some nesting cuckoos, a thick, outer, chalky layer is not present on the eggs of most brood-parasitic species, with some exceptions, and the eggshells of Old World parasitic cuckoos have a thick outer layer that is different from that of nesting cuckoos. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier than the host eggs, and the cuckoo chick grows faster; in most cases,

581-491: A king's court in Rajabanauli (also known as Banauli), in modern-day Nepal. Lakhima Devi, the chief queen of Sivasimha , reigned for 12 years. After that, Padmasimha became the ruler of Mithila. Vidyapati returned to serve Padmasimha and continue writing, primarily treatises on law and devotional manuals. At about 1430 or earlier, he is known to have returned to his village, Bisapi. He often visited its temple of Shiva. He

664-598: A mix of Western Hindi (Braj Bhasha) and archaic Bengali and named the language Brajabuli as an imitation of Vidyapati (he initially promoted these lyrics as those of a newly discovered poet, Bhanusingha ). Other 19th-century figures in the Bengal Renaissance like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee have also written in Brajabuli. Tagore was much influenced by Vidyapati. He set the poet's Bhara Badara to his own tune. Vidyapati has been kept alive in popular memory over

747-628: A number of Pacific islands and another is a winter migrant across much of the Pacific. The Cuculinae are the most widespread subfamily of cuckoos, and are distributed across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania. Amongst the Phaenicophaeinae, the malkohas and Asian ground cuckoos are restricted to southern Asia, the couas are endemic to Madagascar , and the yellowbill is widespread across Africa. The coucals are distributed from Africa through tropical Asia south into Australia and

830-460: A place to breed; for brood parasites the need is for suitable habitat for the host species. Cuckoos occur in a wide variety of habitats . The majority of species occur in forests and woodland, principally in the evergreen rainforests of the tropics, where they are typically but not exclusively arboreal. Some species inhabit or are even restricted to mangrove forests; these include the little bronze cuckoo of Australia , some malkohas, coucals, and

913-434: A position at the court of his successor, Devasimha. The prose story collection Bhūparikramaṇa was written under Devasimha's auspices. Vidyapati developed a close friendship with Devasimha's heir apparent Sivasimha and started focusing on love songs. He wrote some five hundred love songs, primarily between 1380 and 1406. The songs he composed after that period were devotional praises of Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, and Ganga. There

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996-409: A rudder during flight in the arboreal species. The wing shape also varies with lifestyle, with the more migratory species such as the black-billed cuckoo possessing long, narrow wings capable of strong, direct flight, and the more terrestrial and sedentary cuckoos such as the coucals and malkohas having shorter rounded wings and a more laboured, gliding flight. The subfamily Cuculinae comprises

1079-460: A study of the European common cuckoos that females lay their egg in the nest of a host that has eggs that look similar to its own. Other species of cuckoo lay "cryptic" eggs, which are dark in color when their hosts' eggs are light. This is a trick to hide the egg from the host, and is exhibited in cuckoos that parasitize hosts with dark, domed nests. Some adult parasitic cuckoos completely destroy

1162-481: A template of a parasitic egg is costly and imperfect and likely not identical to each host's egg. The other one is the discordancy hypothesis, which states that a host compares eggs in the clutch and identifies the odd ones. However, if parasitic eggs made the majority of eggs in the clutch, then hosts ends up rejecting their own eggs. More recent studies have found that both mechanisms more likely contribute to host discrimination of parasitic eggs since one compensates for

1245-635: A variety of other animals, as well as fruit. Some species are brood parasites , laying their eggs in the nests of other species and giving rise to the metaphor "cuckoo's egg" , but most species raise their own young. Cuckoos have played a role in human culture for thousands of years, appearing in Greek mythology as sacred to the goddess Hera . In Europe, the cuckoo is associated with spring, and with cuckoldry , for example in Shakespeare 's Love's Labour's Lost . In India, cuckoos are sacred to Kamadeva ,

1328-425: A woman's point of view and with matchless tenderness." These songs frequently mention the queens of king Sivasimha, an indicator that they were meant to be enjoyed by the court. At times, his poems identify Krishna with king Sivasimha and Radha with the king's chief queen, Lakhima Devi. They were sung by a court singer, Jayati, who sent the songs to music. They were learned by dancing girls and eventually spread out of

1411-441: Is again the anis, which are often extremely trusting towards humans and other species. Most cuckoos are insectivores , and in particular are specialised in eating larger insects and caterpillars , including noxious, hairy types avoided by other birds. They are unusual among birds in processing their prey prior to swallowing, rubbing it back and forth on hard objects such as branches and then crushing it with special bony plates in

1494-495: Is larger. One of the most important distinguishing features of the family is the feet, which are zygodactyl , meaning that the two inner toes point forward and the two outer backward. The two basic body forms are arboreal species (such as the common cuckoo ), which are slender and have short tarsi , and terrestrial species (such as the roadrunners ), which are more heavy set and have long tarsi. Almost all species have long tails that are used for steering in terrestrial species and as

1577-534: Is one of three that make up the Otidimorphae , the other two being the turacos and the bustards . The family Cuculidae contains 150 species, which are divided into 33 genera. The cuckoos are generally medium-sized, slender birds. Most species live in trees, though a sizeable minority are ground-dwelling. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution ; the majority of species are tropical. Some species are migratory . The cuckoos feed on insects, insect larvae, and

1660-647: Is recorded as having two wives, three sons and four daughters. The independence of the kings Vidyapati worked for was often threatened by incursions by Muslim sultans. The Kīrttilatā makes reference to an incident where the Oiniwar King, Raja Gaṇeśvara, was killed by the Turkish commander, Malik Arsalan in 1371. By 1401, Vidyapati requested the help of the Jaunpur Sultan in overthrowing Arsalan and installing Gaṇeśvara's sons, Vīrasiṃha and Kīrttisiṃha, on

1743-571: Is selective pressure on cuckoos to lessen their egg size to be a more effective mimic, but physiological constraints hinder the species from doing so. Mimicry may also be imperfect due to a lack of strong selection pressures towards the parasite. Oriental reed warbler hosts do not discriminate between warbler-sized model eggs and slightly larger model cuckoo eggs. Since cuckoos in this situation can effectively parasitize despite laying eggs slightly larger than those of their hosts, there are little selective pressures to evolve "perfect" mimicry. To select

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1826-594: The Jaunpur Sultanate in Bengal-Jaunpur conflict . Ganesha had previously freed Bengal from Muslim occupation. Sivasimha was born in a Mithila Brahmin family. His father was King Devasimha of Mithila. His mother was Hasini Devi. King Sivasimha was married to six wives. Queen Lakhima Devi was the most famous and scholarly wife of the King Sivasimha. She ruled Mithila from Banauliraj for 12 years from 1416 to 1428. She sacrificed herself into fire in

1909-646: The Solomon Islands . The remaining three subfamilies have a New World distribution, all are found in both North and South America. The Coccyzinae reach the furthest north of the three subfamilies, breeding in Canada , whereas the anis reach as far north as Florida and the typical ground cuckoos are in the Southwest United States . For the cuckoos, suitable habitat provides a source of food (principally insects and especially caterpillars) and

1992-403: The forest floor , whereas the red-capped ca-ca ran and pounced on prey. Both species also showed seasonal flexibility in prey and foraging techniques. The parasitic cuckoos are generally not recorded as participating in mixed-species feeding flocks , although some studies in eastern Australia found several species participated in the nonbreeding season, but were mobbed and unable to do so in

2075-410: The goliath coucal of Halmahera , Timor coucal , buff-headed coucal , ivory-billed coucal , violaceous coucal , and larger forms of the pheasant coucal . The channel-billed cuckoo , at 630 g (1 lb 6 oz) and 63 cm (25 in) is the largest parasitic cuckoo. Generally, little sexual dimorphism in size occurs, but where it exists, it can be either the male or the female that

2158-549: The lesser cuckoo , which flies from Africa to India , and the common cuckoo of Europe, which flies nonstop over the Mediterranean Sea and Sahara Desert on the voyage between Europe and central Africa. Within Africa, 10 species make regular intracontinental migrations that are described as polarised; that is, they spend the nonbreeding season in the tropical centre of the continent and move north and south to breed in

2241-472: The plumage is exhibited by the family. Some species, particularly the brood parasites, have cryptic plumage, whereas others have bright and elaborate plumage. This is particularly true of the Chrysococcyx or glossy cuckoos, which have iridescent plumage. Some cuckoos have a resemblance to hawks in the genus Accipiter with barring on the underside; this apparently alarms potential hosts, allowing

2324-530: The yellow-billed cuckoo . The cuckoos are, for the most part, solitary birds that seldom occur in pairs or groups. The biggest exception to this are the anis of the Americas, which have evolved cooperative breeding and other social behaviours. For the most part, the cuckoos are also diurnal as opposed to nocturnal, but many species call at night (see below). The cuckoos are also generally a shy and retiring family, more often heard than seen. The exception to this

2407-419: The 20th century, there was just one group left in one village by 2012. Vidyapati's life has been mythologised in different ways. Many of his admirers ascribe miracles to him and detail his interaction with the gods. Among these stories is one which details that Shiva came down to earth to speak with Vidyapati after being impressed with his piety. This incarnation of Lord Shiva is known as Ugna . Ugna served as

2490-603: The Old World species and three of the New World cuckoo species ( pheasant , pavonine , and striped ) are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds and giving rise to the metaphor "cuckoo's egg" . These species are obligate brood parasites, meaning that they only reproduce in this fashion. The best-known example is the European common cuckoo. In addition to the above noted species, others sometimes engage in nonobligate brood parasitism, laying their eggs in

2573-592: The anis, which have eight. The cuckoos have a cosmopolitan distribution , ranging across all the world's continents except Antarctica. They are absent from the southwest of South America, the far north and northwest of North America, and the driest areas of the Middle East and North Africa (although they occur there as passage migrants ). In the oceanic islands of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans they generally only occur as vagrants , but one species breeds on

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2656-784: The aptly named mangrove cuckoo of the New World . In addition to forests, some species of cuckoos occupy more open environments; this can include even arid areas such as deserts in the case of the greater roadrunner or the pallid cuckoo . Temperate migratory species, such as the common cuckoo, inhabit a wide range of habitats to make maximum use of the potential brood hosts, from reed beds (where they parasitise reed warblers ) to treeless moors (where they parasitise meadow pipits ). Most species of cuckoo are sedentary, but some undertake regular seasonal migrations , and others undertake partial migrations over part of their range. Species breeding at higher latitudes migrate to warmer climates during

2739-400: The atypical anis , which are the small, clumsy anis and the larger guira cuckoo . The anis have massive bills and smooth, glossy feathers. The feathers of the cuckoos are generally soft, and often become waterlogged in heavy rain. Cuckoos often sun themselves after rain, and the anis hold their wings open in the manner of a vulture or cormorant while drying. Considerable variation in

2822-670: The back of the mouth. They also take a wide range of other insects and animal prey. The lizard cuckoos of the Caribbean have, in the relative absence of birds of prey , specialised in taking lizards . Larger, ground types, such as coucals and roadrunners, also feed variously on snakes, lizards, small rodents, and other birds, which they bludgeon with their strong bills. Ground species may employ different techniques to catch prey. A study of two coua species in Madagascar found that Coquerel's coua obtained prey by walking and gleaning on

2905-561: The beauty of his home in Madhubani ("forest of honey"), with its mango groves, rice fields, sugar cane, and lotus ponds. In the tradition of Jayadeva 's Gita Govinda , Vidyapati's songs were simultaneously praises of love-making and praises of Krishna; praise of Krishna involved praise of love-making. The intensity and poetic virtuosity of the songs were integral to these songs' function as a way to directly worship god and earn spiritual merit. Vidyapati's continuation of Jayadeva's program in

2988-562: The breeding season in the anis, but can be ejected at any time by guria cuckoos. Polyandry has been confirmed in the African black coucal and is suspected to occur in the other coucals, perhaps explaining the reversed sexual dimorphism in the group. Most cuckoo species, including malkohas, couas, coucals, and roadrunners, and most other American cuckoos, build their own nests, although a large minority engages in brood parasitism (see below). Most of these species nest in trees or bushes, but

3071-451: The breeding season. Ground cuckoos of the genus Neomorphus are sometimes seen feeding in association with army ant swarms, although they are not obligate ant followers , as are some antbirds . The anis are ground feeders that follow cattle and other large mammals when foraging; in a similar fashion to cattle egrets , they snatch prey flushed by the cattle, so enjoy higher foraging success rates in this way. Several koels, couas, and

3154-476: The brood-parasitic cuckoos of the Old World. [ 6 ] They tend to conform to the classic shape, with (usually) long tails, short legs, long, narrow wings, and an arboreal lifestyle. The largest species, the channel-billed cuckoo, also has the most outsized bill in the family, resembling that of a hornbill . The subfamily Phaenicophaeinae comprises the nonparasitic cuckoos of the Old World, and include

3237-577: The call of the male cuckoo, also familiar from cuckoo clocks . In most cuckoos, the calls are distinctive to particular species, and are useful for identification. Several cryptic species are best identified on the basis of their calls. The family Cuculidae was introduced by English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1819. Very little fossil record of cuckoos has been found, and their evolutionary history remains unclear. Dynamopterus

3320-401: The case of the New World ground cuckoos. Nonparasitic cuckoos, like most other nonpasserines, lay white eggs, but many of the parasitic species lay coloured eggs to match those of their passerine hosts. The young of all species are altricial . Nonparasitic cuckoos leave the nest before they can fly, and some New World species have the shortest incubation periods among birds. About 56 of

3403-583: The channel-billed cuckoo feed mainly on fruit, but they are not exclusively frugivores . The parasitic koels and channel-billed cuckoo in particular consume mainly fruit when raised by frugivore hosts such as the Australasian figbird and pied currawong . Other species occasionally take fruit, as well. Couas consume fruit in the dry season when prey is harder to find. The cuckoos are an extremely diverse group of birds with regards to breeding systems. Most are monogamous , but exceptions exist. The anis and

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3486-458: The chick evicts the eggs and/or young of the host species. The chick has no time to learn this behavior, nor does any parent stay around to teach it, so it must be an instinct passed on genetically. One reason for the cuckoo egg's hatching sooner is that, after the egg is fully formed, the female cuckoo holds it in her oviduct for another 24 hours prior to laying. This means that the egg has already had 24 hours of internal incubation. Furthermore,

3569-427: The couas, malkohas, and ground cuckoos. They are more terrestrial cuckoos, with strong and often long legs and short, rounded wings. The subfamily typically has brighter plumage and brightly coloured bare skin around the eye. The coucals are another terrestrial Old World subfamily of long-tailed, long-legged, and short-winged cuckoos. They are large, heavyset birds with the largest, the greater black coucal , being around

3652-435: The coucals lay their eggs in nests on the ground or in low shrubs. Though on some occasions nonparasitic cuckoos parasitize other species, the parent still helps feed the chick. The nests of cuckoos vary in the same way as the breeding systems. The nests of malkohas and Asian ground cuckoos are shallow platforms of twigs, but those of coucals are globular or domed nests of grasses. The New World cuckoos build saucers or bowls in

3735-486: The court. His love songs have been collected into the Padāvalī , probably not by Vidyapati himself. Though he wrote hundreds of love songs about the romance of Radha and Krishna, he was not a special devotee of Krishna or Vishnu. Instead, he lavished attention on Shiva and Durga but also wrote songs about Vishnu and Ganga . He is particularly known for his songs of the love of Shiva and Parvati and prayers for Shiva as

3818-427: The cuckoo's internal temperature is 3-4 °C higher than the temperature at which the egg is incubated in the nest, and the higher temperature means that the egg incubates faster, so at the time it is laid, the egg has already had the equivalent of 30 hours incubation in a nest. The chick encourages the host to keep pace with its high growth rate with its rapid begging call and the chick's open mouth which serves as

3901-436: The eggs of their chosen host. Some birds are able to distinguish cuckoo eggs from their own, leading to those eggs least like the host's being thrown out of the nest. Parasitic cuckoos that show the highest levels of egg mimicry are those whose hosts exhibit high levels of egg rejection behavior. Some hosts do not exhibit egg rejection behavior and the cuckoo eggs look very dissimilar from the host eggs. It has also been shown in

3984-729: The female to access a host nest. The young of some brood parasites are coloured so as to resemble the young of the host. For example, the Asian koels breeding in India have black offspring to resemble their crow hosts, whereas in the Australian koels the chicks are brown like their honeyeater hosts. Sexual dimorphism in plumage is uncommon in the cuckoos, being most common in the parasitic Old World species. Cuckoos have 10 primary flight feathers and 9–13 secondary flight feathers . All species have 10 tail feathers , apart from

4067-531: The females can lay their eggs in the nest. Some host species may directly try to prevent cuckoos laying eggs in their nest in the first place – birds whose nests are at high risk of cuckoo-contamination are known to "mob" attack cuckoos to drive them out of the area. Parasitic cuckoos are grouped into gentes , with each gens specializing in a particular host. Some evidence suggests that the gentes are genetically different from one another. Female parasitic cuckoos sometimes specialize and lay eggs that closely resemble

4150-498: The god of desire and longing, whereas in Japan, the cuckoo symbolises unrequited love. Cuckoos are medium-sized birds that range in size from the little bronze cuckoo , at 17 g (0.6 oz) and 15 cm (6 in), to moderately large birds, ranging from 60–80 cm (24–31 in) in length, such as the giant coua of Madagascar , the coral-billed ground-cuckoo of Indochina , and various large Indo-Pacific coucals such as

4233-513: The governor of Godavari province of the King of Odisha, Gajapati Prataprudra Dev. He was a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu . He recited his Brajabuli poems to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he first met him on the bank of river Godavari at Rajahmundry , southern provincial capital of Kingdom of Odisha. Bengali Vaishnavas like Chitanya and Chandidas adopted Vidyapati's love songs about Radha and Krishna as Vaishnava hymns. All major Bengali poets of

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4316-523: The guira cuckoo lay their eggs in communal nests, which are built by all members of the group. Incubation, brooding, and territorial defence duties are shared by all members of the group. Within these species, the anis breed as groups of monogamous pairs, but the guira cuckoos are not monogamous within the group, exhibiting a polygynandrous breeding system. This group nesting behaviour is not completely cooperative; females compete and may remove others' eggs when laying theirs. Eggs are usually only ejected early in

4399-421: The host's clutch if they reject the cuckoo egg. In this case, raising the cuckoo chick is less of a cost than the alternative, total clutch destruction. Cuckoo egg physiology can limit the degree of mimetic accuracy. Due to larger chick size on average for parasites compared to hosts, this is a physiological constraint on egg size, a minimum egg size needed to support a healthy cuckoo chick. In these cases, there

4482-464: The interactions were not necessarily simply parasitic or mutualistic. This relationship was not observed for any other host species, or for any other species of cuckoo. Great spotted cuckoo chicks do not evict host eggs or young, and are smaller and weaker than carrion crow chicks, so both of these factors may have contributed to the effect observed. However, subsequent research using a dataset from southern Spain failed to replicate these findings, and

4565-408: The kingdom. Among these tanks, the tanks in villages Rajokhari, and Barh are associated with various proverbs. He issued gold coins, two specimens of which were found at Pipra village of Champaran district in 1913. On those coins were the inscriptions "Shri" on the obverse and "Shiva" on the reverse, which indicates that the coins were minted during the reign of Sivasimha. He granted Bisfi village in

4648-418: The lab show similar findings: cuckoos parasitized artificial nests containing blue eggs more frequently than pink ones. Two main hypotheses on the cognitive mechanisms mediate host distinguishing of eggs. One hypothesis is true recognition, which states that a host compares eggs present in its clutch to an internal template (learnt or innate), to identify if parasitic eggs are present. However, memorizing

4731-565: The lead roles. In December 2018, Darbhanga Airport was renamed Kavi Kokil Vidyapati Airport. His works have been translated to several languages, including English. Vidyapati's love songs were translated into English as part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works . Cuckoo 33 genera, see text Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( / k juː ˈ k j uː l ɪ d iː / kew- KEW -lih-dee ) family,

4814-477: The limitations of the other. The parasitism is not necessarily entirely detrimental to the host species. A 16-year dataset was used in 2014 to find that carrion crow nests in a region of northern Spain were more successful overall (more likely to produce at least one crow fledgling) when parasitised by the great spotted cuckoo . The researchers attributed this to a strong-smelling predator-repelling substance secreted by cuckoo chicks when attacked, and noted that

4897-465: The love of Radha and Krishna. He seems to have only composed love songs between 1380 and 1406, though he kept writing until near his death in 1448. He seems to have ceased writing love songs after his patron and friend Sivasimha went missing in a battle and his court had to go into exile. These songs, which would eventually number five hundred, broke with convention. They were written in vernacular Maithili as songs, not as formal poems in literary Sanskrit as

4980-489: The medieval period were influenced by Vidyapati. As a result, an artificial literary language, known as Brajabuli was developed in the sixteenth century. Brajabuli is basically Maithili (as prevalent during the medieval period) but its forms are modified to look like Bengali. The medieval Bengali poets, Gobindadas Kabiraj, Jnandas, Balaramdas and Narottamdas composed their pada s (poems) in this language. Rabindranath Tagore composed his Bhanusingha Thakurer Padabali (1884) in

5063-614: The more arid and open savannah and deserts. This is the same as the situation in the Neotropics, where no species have this migration pattern, or tropical Asia, where a single species does. About 83% of the Australian species are partial migrants within Australia or travel to New Guinea and Indonesia after the breeding season. In some species, the migration is diurnal , as in the channel-billed cuckoo , or nocturnal , as in

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5146-518: The most suitable host nests, cuckoos may “egg-match” as well. Daurian redstarts ( Phoenicurus auroreus ), another cuckoo host, lay clutches of either pink or blue eggs. Cuckoo eggs are more similar in reflectance and color to blue redstart eggs than pink ones. Furthermore, in-field observations revealed parasitism occurred more frequently in blue-egg redstart nests (19.3%) than in pink-egg redstart nests (7.9%). This suggests cuckoos prefer parasitizing nests containing eggs resembling their own. Experiments in

5229-457: The nests of members of their own species, in addition to raising their own young. Brood parasitism has even been seen in greater roadrunners, where their eggs were seen in the nests of common ravens and northern mockingbirds . The shells of the eggs of brood-parasitic cuckoos are usually thicker and stronger than those of their hosts. This protects the egg if a host parent tries to damage it, and may make it resistant to cracking when dropped into

5312-515: The past six centuries; he is a household name in Mithila . His love songs are sung at weddings in the region. Many myths have arisen about him and people continue to sing his songs. A form of folk dance-drama street theater, Bidāpat Nāch, where "bidāpat " is derived from "Vidyapati", is performed in Purnia district in north Bihar. While several groups performed in multiple villages in that area in

5395-452: The past, the town where this is believed to have happened was renamed Vidyapati Nagar ("town of Vidyapati") and a Shiva temple was built there. Pahari Sanyal played Vidyapati in the 1937 Bengali film Vidyapati , which received a lot of appreciation. The film starred Prithviraj Kapoor as King Shiva Singha of Mithila. Another film, also titled Vidyapati , was made in 1964 by Prahlad Sharma, starring Bharat Bhushan and Simi Garewal in

5478-914: The phylogenetic relationships between the genera. It is from a 2005 study by Michael Sorenson and Robert Payne and is based solely on an analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. The number of species in each genus is taken from the list maintained by Frank Gill , Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Guira – guira cuckoo Crotophaga – anis (3 species) Tapera – striped cuckoo Dromococcyx – cuckoos (2 species) Morococcyx – lesser ground cuckoo Geococcyx – roadrunners (2 species) Neomorphus – ground cuckoos (5 species) Shiva Simha Singh Mithila, Bengal and Arakanese accounts say that Brahmin ruler Sivasimha helped another Brahmin ruler, and his friend Raja Ganesha of Bengal , in defeating

5561-656: The present Madhubani district to his friend Vidyapati for his poems Kirtilata and Kirtipataka. He is also said to have erected a Masoleum known as Mamoon Bhanja at Jaruha, near Hajipur . In his copper plate grant to Vidyapati , he claimed to have won the kings of Gauda and Gajjanpur. He was also involved in the Bengal–Jaunpur confrontation . He led an expedition against Gauda to extend his rule over that land. Sivasimha thought of conquering this newly converted Muslim ruler. He defeated Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah ,

5644-410: The same size as the channel-billed cuckoo. Genera of the subfamily Coccyzinae are arboreal and long-tailed, as well, with a number of large insular forms. The New World ground cuckoos are similar to the Asian ground-cuckoos in being long legged and terrestrial, and includes the long-billed roadrunner , which can reach speeds of 30 km/h (19 mph) when chasing prey. The final subfamily includes

5727-525: The second research team also criticised the methodology used in experiments described in the first paper. The authors of the first study have responded to points made in the second and both groups agree that further research is needed before the mutualistic effect can be considered proven. Cuckoos are often highly secretive, and in many cases, best known for their wide repertoire of calls . These are usually relatively simple, resembling whistles, flutes, or hiccups. The calls are used to demonstrate ownership of

5810-467: The servant of the poet Vidyapati. Another story exists involving him and the Goddess Ganga . When his death was imminent, he decided to go to the river Ganga, but was too tired to continue just a few miles away. He resolves that if his piety was pure, the river would come to him. And so it happens. The goddess obliges and the river rises to let him take a final dip in holy waters. At some point in

5893-477: The sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( / k j uː ˈ k j uː l ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / kew- KEW -lih-for-meez ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo , roadrunners , koels , malkohas , couas , coucals , and anis . The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae , respectively. The cuckoo order Cuculiformes

5976-514: The species involved were to stop adapting, it would lose the race to the other species, resulting in decreased fitness of the losing species. The egg-stage adaptation is the best studied stage of this arms race. Cuckoos have various strategies for getting their eggs into host nests. Different species use different strategies based on host defensive strategies. Female cuckoos have secretive and fast laying behaviors, but in some cases, males have been shown to lure host adults away from their nests so that

6059-487: The supreme Brahman. A song titled All My Inhibition : All my inhibition left me in a flash, When he robbed me off my clothes, But his body became my new dress. Like a bee hovering on a lotus leaf He was there in my night, on me! Vidyapati's influence reached Odisha through Bengal. The earliest composition in Brajabuli , an artificial literary language popularized by Vidyapati, is ascribed to Ramananda Raya ,

6142-486: The throne. With the Sultan's assistance, Arsalan was deposed and Kīrttisiṃha, the oldest son, became the ruler of Mithila. The conflicts of his time are evident in his works. In his early praise-poem Kīrttilatā, he slyly criticizes his patron for his perceived deference to Muslims. While working under his second patron, Devasimha, and especially under his successor Sivasimha, Vidyapati started composing Maithili songs of

6225-688: The winter due to food availability. The long-tailed koel , which breeds in New Zealand, flies to its wintering grounds in Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia, a feat described as "perhaps the most remarkable overwater migration of any land bird." The yellow-billed cuckoo and black-billed cuckoo breed in North America and fly across the Caribbean Sea , a nonstop flight of 4,000 km (2,500 mi). Other long migration flights include

6308-403: Was a close friendship between Sivasimha , king of Mithila from 1402 to 1406, and Vidyapati. As soon as Sivasimha ascended to his throne, he granted Vidyapati his home village of Bisapi, an act recorded on a copper plate. On the plate, Sivasimha calls him "the new Jayadeva ". The poet also accompanied his king to Delhi, at the sultan's demand. A story about that encounter relates how the king

6391-466: Was an Oligocene genus of large cuckoo, though it may have been related to cariamas, instead. A 2014 genome analysis by Erich Jarvis and collaborators found a clade of birds that contains the orders Cuculiformes (cuckoos), Musophagiformes (turacos), and Otidiformes (bustards). This has been named the Otidimorphae. Relationships between the orders is unclear. The following cladogram shows

6474-427: Was born to a Maithil Brahmin family in the village of Bisapī (now Bisfi ) in the present-day Madhubani district of the Mithila region of northern Bihar , India . The name Vidyapati ("master of knowledge") is derived from two Sanskrit words, vidya ("knowledge") and pati ("master"). There is confusion as to his exact date of birth due to conflicting information from his own works and those of his patrons. He

6557-538: Was done before. Until Vidyapati, Maithili wasn't employed as a literary medium. He applied the tradition of Sanskrit love poetry to the "simple, musical, and direct" Maithili language. His inheritance from the Sanskrit tradition include its repertory of standard images to describe beauty ("eyes large and tender like a doe's") and standard settings to invoke certain moods and feelings (spring with its increasing heat as an analogy for rising passion). Vidyapati also drew from

6640-608: Was heavily associated with the Oiniwar dynasty of Mithila and worked in the courts of seven Kings and two Queens of this dynasty. Vidyapati's first commission was by Kīrttisiṃha, who ruled Mithila from around 1370 to 1380. This led to the Kīrtilatā , a long praise-poem for his patron in verse. This work contains an extended passage praising the courtesans of Delhi, foreshadowing his later virtuosity in composing love poetry. Though Kīrttisiṃha didn't commission any more works, Vidyapati secured

6723-455: Was held by the sultan and Vidyapati negotiated for his release by displaying his clairvoyant powers. Sivasimha 's favorable patronage and the courtly environment encouraged Vidyapati's experiments in love songs written in Maithili, a language everyone at court could enjoy. In 1406, Sivasimha went missing in a battle with a Muslim army. After this defeat, Vidyapati and the court took refuge at

6806-610: Was not just restricted to Maithili and Sanskrit literature but also extended to other Eastern Indian literary traditions. The language at the time of Vidyapati, the prakrit -derived late Abahattha , had just begun to transition into early versions of the Eastern language such as Maithili. Thus, Vidyapati's influence on making these languages has been described as "analogous to that of Dante in Italy and Chaucer in England ". Vidyapati

6889-440: Was the son of Gaṇapati Ṭhakkura, a Maithil Brahmin said to be a great devotee of Shiva . His mother name was Hansini Devi . Vidyapati was married to Shushila . He was a priest in the court of Rāya Gaṇeśvara, the reigning chief of Tirhut. A number of his near ancestors were notable in their own right including his great-grandfather, Devāditya Ṭhakkura, who was a Minister of War and Peace in the court of Harisimhadeva . Vidyapati

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