Cuckoos are not the only brood parasites, however the behavior is more rare in other groups of birds, including ducks, weavers, and cowbirds.
[1] Brood parasites and their favored host species are known to coevolve, which means both are likely to possess specific adaptations and counteradaptations.
This process has been termed natal habitat preference induction (NHPI) and has been found in many species across different taxa, such as insects (Hopkins’ host selection principle), fish, amphibians, mammals and birds of course.
[9] There are 5 hypotheses for host selection in cuckoos: Inherited preference, host imprinting, natal philopatry (returning to their own birthplace to lay eggs), nest site choice (preference based on egg and nest similarity), and the hypothesis described above, habitat selection.
[8] Although the preponderance of evidence seems to be in favor of the habitat selection hypothesis, some evidence for natal philopatry has been observed in cuckoos and the majority of cuckoo eggs are found in nests and among eggs matching their foster species, which supports the nest site choice hypothesis, but does not invalidate any of the other hypotheses.