Cuckoo
- Though there are 54 species of Old World cuckoos, just two live in Europe; most live in Africa, Asia and Australasia.
- The name cuckoo is onomatopoeic, which means that it is taken from the bird's call (like, for example, curlew and hoopoe).
- The common cuckoo is the only member of the family that calls cuckoo-cuckoo-cuckoo… Most of the others have loud voices but totally different calls.
- The female’s bubbling call is often said to resemble the sound of bath water running out when the plug is pulled.
- The resident African cuckoo looks virtually identical to our bird, but has more orange-yellow on the beak. It calls pooh-pooh…
- The cuckoo is one of the most widespread breeding birds in Europe, and is only absent from Iceland. It also breeds throughout Asia east to Japan.
- The earliest-ever reliable record of a cuckoo in England was one at Farnham in Surrey on 20 February 1953.
- It is traditional to write to The Times when you hear the first cuckoo of spring.
- Only the male cuckoo calls cuckoo, and as the spring progresses the double-note tends to change: In June I change my tune.
- Cuckoo spit has nothing to do with cuckoos, but is produced by insects as a protection from predators.
- The cuckoo’s favourite diet is hairy caterpillars.
- The word cuckold indicates a betrayed husband, a reflection of the cuckoo’s mating habits.
- Each season a female will lay between 12 and 22 eggs, all in different nests.
- More than 120 species have been parasitised by cuckoos in Europe: in Britain the most favoured species are dunnock, meadow pipit and reed bunting.
- A female cuckoo will generally lay her eggs in a nest belonging to the same species of bird that reared her.
- Unlike most birds, female cuckoos lay their eggs in the afternoon rather than the morning.
- Though cuckoo eggs usually resemble those of their host, around 20% are rejected so never hatch.
- Young cuckoos do not tolerate other eggs or chicks in their nest.
- Adult cuckoos move back to Africa as soon as the breeding season is over – as early as the second half of June in southern England.
- Young cuckoos follow their parents back to Africa several weeks later.
- The cuckoo spends nine months of the year in tropical Africa, where it has never been heard to sing.
