Black-billed cuckoo
Many cuckoos are obligate brood parasites, meaning they only lay eggs in other birds' nests and never take care of their own young. Birds that do this, such as the common cuckoo or the brown-headed cowbird, lay relatively small eggs because their expected hosts are usually smaller birds. Cuckoos in the genus "Coccyzus", lay relatively large eggs even though they still parasitize smaller birds. Yellow warblers are the smallest birds recorded caring for black-billed cuckoo eggs. In experiments, these wood warblers were found to accept the cuckoo eggs 63% of the time even though their own eggs are only a quarter of the size. Even with the size difference, the warbler parent is often still able to raise the cuckoo as long as it can provide the chick with sufficient nutrition and incubation.
The black-billed cuckoo was originally placed in genus "Cuculus". This genus comprises Old World cuckoos that are all obligate brood parasites. Upon further genetic testing, it was placed into genus "Coccyzus" that comprises nine species of New World cuckoos. The black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos are the only two that migrate into North America while the other seven are permanent residents of either Central or South America. Even though these two cuckoos overlap in range, they are not sister taxa. This suggests that the two species invaded North America separately. Although family Cuculidae is monophyletic, the genus "Coccyzus" was found to be polyphyletic.
House sparrow
Clutches usually comprise four or five eggs, though numbers from one to 10 have been recorded. At least two clutches are usually laid, and up to seven a year may be laid in the tropics or four a year in temperate latitudes. When fewer clutches are laid in a year, especially at higher latitudes, the number of eggs per clutch is greater. Central Asian house sparrows, which migrate and have only one clutch a year, average 6.5 eggs in a clutch. Clutch size is also affected by environmental and seasonal conditions, female age, and breeding density.
Some intraspecific brood parasitism occurs, and instances of unusually large numbers of eggs in a nest may be the result of females laying eggs in the nests of their neighbours. Such foreign eggs are sometimes recognised and ejected by females. The house sparrow is a victim of interspecific brood parasites, but only rarely, since it usually uses nests in holes too small for parasites to enter, and it feeds its young foods unsuitable for young parasites. In turn, the house sparrow has once been recorded as a brood parasite of the American cliff swallow.
The eggs are white, bluish white, or greenish white, spotted with brown or grey. Subelliptical in shape, they range from in length and in width, have an average mass of , and an average surface area of . Eggs from the tropical subspecies are distinctly smaller. Eggs begin to develop with the deposition of yolk in the ovary a few days before ovulation. In the day between ovulation and laying, egg white forms, followed by eggshell. Eggs laid later in a clutch are larger, as are those laid by larger females, and egg size is hereditary. Eggs decrease slightly in size from laying to hatching. The yolk comprises 25% of the egg, the egg white 68%, and the shell 7%. Eggs are watery, being 79% liquid, and otherwise mostly protein.