Egg wars

Birds engage in evolutionary arms race

Eggs of cuckoo finches and tawny-flanked prinias have grown more colorful in the last 40 years — a sign that the neighbors are locked in an evolutionary arms race.

EGG EVOLUTION African cuckoo finch eggs (inner circle) have evolved to closely match the colors of the tawny-flanked prinia (outer circle), a bird the cuckoo finch parasitize.