biology

Striped cuckoo

Striped cuckoo is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Striped cuckoo rather than just read about it. In short: The striped cuckoo (Tapera naevia) is a near-passerine bird, the only member of the genus Tapera. This resident cuckoo is found from Mexico and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Argentina and Colombia.

Key takeaways

Striped cuckoo belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Striped cuckoo to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Striped cuckoo from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The striped cuckoo (Tapera naevia) is a near-passerine bird, the only member of the genus Tapera. This resident cuckoo is found from Mexico and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Argentina and Colombia. The striped cuckoo is found in open country with trees or shrubs, and the edges of mangrove forests. It is among the very few brood parasitic cuckoos of the Americas (only other are Dromococcyx), and typical hosts are spinetails, but often also wrens, and other species with domed nests. The female cuckoo lays one, sometimes two, white or bluish eggs in the host's large stick nest. The eggs hatch in 15 days, with a further 18 days until the cuckoo fledges. The young spinetails disappear. This species is about 27 cm (11 in) long and weighs 40 g (1.4 oz). The adult is mainly grey-brown above, streaked with black and buff. It has a pale supercilium and a chestnut and black crest which is raised as part of its display. The underparts are off-white and the tail is long and graduated. Immature birds are spotted with buff and are more rufous on the back and wings. The striped cuckoo eats large insects (primarily grasshoppers and caterpillars), often taken off the ground. This is a solitary and fairly shy species which tends to keep to the cover of bushes, although it will sing from more open perches. It has a whistled call usually of two or three notes, wu-weee or wu-wu-wee, and can be attracted by imitations of this.

Brazilian folklore This bird is very important in Brazilian folklore, being related to the legend of the saci, or matita-perê. Other than saci, the bird is also known as matinta-pereira, pitica (Pará), crispim, fenfém, martim-pererê, matimpererê, matintapereira, matintaperera, matitaperê, peitica, peito-ferido, roceiro-planta, seco-fico, sede-sede, saci-do-campo, sem-fim, fém-fém, tempo-quente, bulhões, bolinhas, feijão, feijoada, jotalhão, gansolino, peixe-frito (Bahia), e peixe-frito-seu-veríssimo. Matita-pereira is famously mentioned in Tom Jobim's song Águas de março.

References

ffrench, Richard (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd ed.). Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2. Hilty, Steven L (2003). Birds of Venezuela. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5.

External links

"American striped cuckoo media". Internet Bird Collection. Stamps for Suriname at bird-stamps.org Striped cuckoo photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University) Striped cuckoo Photo at Birds of Guyana Striped cuckoo species account at Neotropical Birds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) Interactive range map of Tapera naevia at IUCN Red List

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Striped cuckoo

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Striped cuckoo claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Striped cuckoo before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Striped cuckoo ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Striped cuckoo

In research: Striped cuckoo appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Striped cuckoo in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Striped cuckoo is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Animal taxa named by Carl Linnaeus, Birds described in 1766, Birds of Brazil, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Striped cuckoo outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Striped cuckoo in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Striped cuckoo means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Striped cuckoo out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Striped cuckoo in simple terms?

The striped cuckoo (Tapera naevia) is a near-passerine bird, the only member of the genus Tapera. This resident cuckoo is found from Mexico and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Argentina and Colombia.

Why does Striped cuckoo matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Striped cuckoo?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Striped cuckoo.