Mairenn Attwood successfully passed her MPhil viva at the University of Cambridge, defending her thesis entitled “Angry birds: does it pay a cuckoo to parasitise a highly aggressive host?”, and Luke McClean successfully passed his PhD at the University of Cape Town entitled “Coevolution between brood-parasitic honeyguides and their hosts”. Congratulations Mairenn, congratulations Dr McClean! Thank you to all five thesis examiners for their insights, and to the field team that enabled both research projects. Mairenn will return to Cambridge and Zambia in 2021 to start her PhD on further fascinating aspects of fork-tailed drongos’ defences against their enemies.